It’s One Photo Focus time! I rather enjoy this challenge of taking someone’s photo and editing it into our own creation. Thank you David Croker for providing this week’s original photo. Please check out David’s blog when you have time. And as always, thank you Stacy for coordinating this challenge! Please check out the entire the entire challenge with everyone’s edits on Stacy’s blog by clicking here.
I’ve been seeing a lot of images where almost the entire image is dark except for a few areas like a snow capped mountain or an ocean wave illuminated in the night. I thought I’d try it out with this image although I couldn’t quite push myself to the extreme but this may be a decent first try.
The Process:
1. Imported image to LR and made basic adjustments like clarity, curves, highlights and shadows along with some pre-sharpening.
2. Opened in Photoshop and duplicated layer.
3. Used Topaz Denoise lightly.
4. Used a dark Old Painting texture (JD Beautiful World Textures by Jessica Drossin) and used a layer mask to hide the line of ships.
5. Applied unsharp mask to sharpen the boats only.
6. I didn’t feel the boats had enough structure, so I added a layer from Topaz Glow called Black Sketch Overlay at a reduced opacity and applied it to the line of boats only.
7. Used Nik Color Efex to add a Dynamic Contrast and Skylight filter at reduced opacities.
8. Added a curve to lighten things up a bit.
Hope you enjoy it!

One Photo Focus – June – Edited by Laura Macky

Original by David Croker
June 3, 2016 at 5:19 am
Very interesting bit of editing indeed!
June 3, 2016 at 9:37 am
Thank you!
June 3, 2016 at 6:27 am
Well done, Laura! Love the after version. π
June 3, 2016 at 9:37 am
I’m so glad you like it! Thank you. π
June 3, 2016 at 7:09 am
Very cool editing Laura, has the look of an old masters painting.
June 3, 2016 at 3:57 pm
Why thank you! What a huge compliment. π
June 3, 2016 at 7:32 am
Love what you’ve done, Laura.
June 3, 2016 at 4:01 pm
Thanks so much Sarah! It was a fun one.
June 3, 2016 at 7:43 am
Laura, you did a wonderful editing job this photo. So dramatic.
June 3, 2016 at 3:57 pm
Thank you Cee. π Just thought I’d try pushing myself in a new direction. Fun stuff this challenge!
June 3, 2016 at 8:24 am
What a gorgeous result with your editing Laura – so, so effective!
June 3, 2016 at 3:58 pm
Thank you Joanne!
June 3, 2016 at 9:43 am
Very nice Laura….moody and compelling!
June 3, 2016 at 3:59 pm
Thank you Debi. π I was definitely going for moody so yay for that.
June 3, 2016 at 12:07 pm
I usually love your work. Hope you don’t mind my honesty, this one came out a bit too dark for my taste. Art is subjective π .
June 3, 2016 at 4:01 pm
No worries. π
Pingback: One Photo Focus βΒ June β Laura Macky Photography | Amazing Fine Art
June 3, 2016 at 1:49 pm
Great job; my new favorite of yours.
June 3, 2016 at 4:00 pm
Really? Yay! Thank you David. I love to try new things. π
June 3, 2016 at 1:57 pm
gorgeous edit!!- as always!
June 3, 2016 at 4:00 pm
Why thank you m’dear! much appreciated! π
June 3, 2016 at 3:58 pm
Nice moody interpretation.
June 3, 2016 at 4:00 pm
Thanks so much!
June 3, 2016 at 8:12 pm
Love the mood!
June 4, 2016 at 1:05 am
I agree with Beth – has the old master’s feel – really pulls you in with the quieter colors – enjoyed your edit – π
June 4, 2016 at 7:48 am
Thank you so much! I’ve been attracted to these images that are muted except for a small part of it. They’re fun to try and create.
June 4, 2016 at 8:03 am
π
June 4, 2016 at 1:06 am
Oh and by the way – I am now cheering “with” you –
Go warriors……..
πππππ
June 4, 2016 at 7:49 am
YAY! Go Warrriorrrrsssss!!!
June 4, 2016 at 8:02 am
π
June 4, 2016 at 4:43 pm
Dramatic image, I particularly the lighting on the boats.
June 5, 2016 at 5:48 am
Really like this edit and the drama that you have brought to a lovely summers day image. Thanks for including the step by step – really interesting π
June 25, 2016 at 6:03 am
That’s a great editing example and the steps are relatively simple. You mention you canβt quite push yourself to create an extreme example and I also have this problem. I find I can push things further when I edit others images but never my own. Thanks for sharing this.
June 25, 2016 at 7:52 am
I’m glad you liked it. I was thinking about this and why it’s so. Perhaps because the images we edit are purposefully not balanced images….like they are usually crooked or darker or something. Plus they aren’t images I usually take so right out of the box I need to rework them into something that feels like me whereas when I take a picture I already know what I want to do with it? Dunno but I felt like rambling on about it here I guess!! lol
November 25, 2017 at 2:21 am
Hi – seem to have missed your photos lately – my site has changed – dianaed14