For those of you who don’t know this challenge, it consists of everyone editing the same photo taken by one person. Below you’ll find my image as well as the original image provided by Robin Kent. Thanks much Robin for the beautiful, original image! Please check out Stacy’s blog when you have time to see everyone’s submissions. It’s always fun to see everyone’s edits!
Basic Process:
- Used Lightroom to make basic adjustments for clarity.
- Imported to Photoshop and cropped to 16:9 aspect ratio.
- Used patch tool to remove the modern white building and filled it with sky.
- Cleaned up the patch by using the healing brush.
- Added a texture layer and set blend mode to Lighter Color, reduced opacity to 74% and fill to 89% and added a mask where I took a black brush and hid parts of the texture at varying opacities to reveal more of the water glow, the wheel and parts of the building so that the texture didn’t completely obscure details. I picked a texture that would give me a glow near the wheel in the clouds and the water so that our eye is drawn there.
- Added another texture layer and set the blend mode to Color Burn, reduced opacity to 50% and fill to 50%. This layer was like laying a tissue completely over the entire image unlike the previous one where I only applied it to portions of the image.
- Used Color Efex Pro, Pro Contrast filter.
- Voila!

One Photo Focus, August 2016 – Edited by Laura Macky
August 5, 2016 at 5:13 am
Deft editing – the results are very, very pleasing to the eye.
August 5, 2016 at 7:10 am
Thank you so very much Vibha!
August 5, 2016 at 6:42 am
Nice edits for this photo of Robin’s. Wonderful. 😀
August 5, 2016 at 7:52 am
Wow, the process of adding texture layers is amazing! Thank you for sharing the outline of the transformation! Love the result.
August 5, 2016 at 8:04 am
Lovely old postcard 🙂
August 5, 2016 at 8:08 am
Thank you 🙂
August 5, 2016 at 8:28 am
Great work Laura, a huge improvement!! ❤️👍🏻
August 5, 2016 at 8:35 am
Good morning John! Thanks so much! Always fun this challenge. 🙂
August 5, 2016 at 8:50 am
Good morning to you!!
August 5, 2016 at 10:21 am
🙂
August 5, 2016 at 8:46 am
Great treatment. I love the golden tones you’ve added. The removal of the white building makes a big difference too – wish I’d thought of that!
Marie
August 5, 2016 at 9:13 am
Wow, removed the building. It really does make a difference with the direction you took! The 16×9 aspect ratio was a great choice as well. All lovely layering to achieve your wonderful final version. My eye definitely is drawn right to the wheel and its “reflection.”
August 5, 2016 at 10:22 am
I’m so glad it works! Thanks so much for your comments. I always appreciate them. 🙂 Another fun month!
August 5, 2016 at 11:02 am
Love the edit especially the warm tones and the removal of the white building.
August 5, 2016 at 2:37 pm
Thank you so much. I really adore warm tones!
August 5, 2016 at 11:10 am
It has a 1900s postcard quality that I love. Nice job, Laura.
August 5, 2016 at 2:37 pm
It kinda does! Thanks Elen 🙂
August 5, 2016 at 2:26 pm
Wow, Laura, superb job!! Par excellent with the editing!! ❤
August 5, 2016 at 2:46 pm
Thank you so much Amy! i’m glad you like it. 🙂
August 5, 2016 at 5:19 pm
Lovely rendition
August 5, 2016 at 6:33 pm
Thanks so much Terry. 🙂
August 5, 2016 at 6:41 pm
Gorgeous – love your choices on editing!😃
August 5, 2016 at 7:57 pm
Thanks so much Joanne. :). Always a fun challenge!
August 5, 2016 at 8:03 pm
Lovely edits and interesting to read how you made them.
August 6, 2016 at 7:53 am
I’m glad you liked it. Thanks so much Belinda. 🙂
August 5, 2016 at 8:57 pm
your looks like an old post card
August 6, 2016 at 7:53 am
It does! Thanks. :)x
August 7, 2016 at 10:49 am
Great job, Laura. I love the warm tones. ANd removing the white building was an excellent idea. I’ll certainly steal that idea when I get back to the original.
August 7, 2016 at 10:52 am
Thanks Robin. I almost didn’t know what to do with it in the first place because it was such a good picture! I loved that it was because the result is always better when starting with a photo well shot. And steal away!
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August 19, 2016 at 6:43 pm
Thank you for linking to my post! I’ve been away for a few days and trying to get back into the swing of things. 🙂
December 20, 2016 at 8:43 pm
My favourite of the edits 🙂