Before and After Photography

I still remember the first time I saw a digital photograph being edited on a computer. I was amazed then, and am still amazed at what the combination of digital photography and computer editing can do. 

Computer enhanced photography is a game of patience. I rarely have a final image in mind when I start.  There are typically multiple times when I hit the delete key and start over from the beginning. Some images take 20 minutes and some take months to complete. 
 
Sometimes people ask what the original image looked like. The pictures below show the original photograph (before) and the computer enhanced image (after).

Thanks for viewing - Jim Sherblon

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Before and After

Before Alt Text
After Alt Text

Before: Essex, New York

Essex is a village on Lake Champlain in upstate New York. This picture was taken in early October from a ferry that runs between Vermont and New York across the lake. 

After: Essex Sunset

This rendering took about a month to complete. The sky and sun were added using a photo taken using an iPhone. It was taken from the window of an airliner after landing in a thunderstorm at sunset (at Sacramento airport). Some distracting items we are removed from the original image, and the colors were enhanced. Finally, the image was modified for a watercolor look.  

Before: Amgen Bicycle Race

The Amgen bicycle race came to Lodi in May 2016.  I setup on a country road outside of town along with a lot of other people (including the fire truck seen in the background). The picture was taken with a telephoto lens which compresses the racers into a tight group.

After: Racers

After cropping and adjusting the color, a outline glow effect was added to get to the final image.  

Before: Car Show Corvette

This classic Corvette was on display at a local car show. This turned into one of my personal favorites...

After: Midnight Rider

I removed everything that wasn't Corvette from the image (removing the background through the windshield was a challenge).  After several false starts of trying different backgrounds, I finally adjusted the background to black.  

Before: Venice Main Canal

Venice is a amazing place for photography. It's hard to believe it's real.  This picture was taken on a cloudy day after it had rained overnight. That washed out sky is a photographers nightmare.

After: Sunset on the Canal

Most of the change was removing the detail like the pilings and second gondola in the foreground, and TV antennas on rooftops. The sunset sky was added and the lighting enhanced.

Before: Small Canal

This was taken from a bridge over this small canal in a Venetian neighborhood. The woman in the lower right corner was posing for a fashion photographer who is out of the picture.

After: The Blue Boat

The most interesting work done on this photo was removing the woman from the image.  Removing parts of an image is fairly easy. The real work is in replacing what was removed. In the situation. The camera records what it see, but not what's behind. I had to "build" the part of the window that was behind her using other parts of the image.  

Before: Sunflowers

We took a short road trip to nearby Yolo County in search of sunflowers.  The staff at a local airport helped us find the fields.  It was nearing the end of the season and the sunflower heads were heavy and drooping. This shot was taken with a telephoto lens while standing on a stepladder on the shoulder of the road.  

After:  Late Bloomer

This is a photo that probably doesn't need computer enhancement, but I opted to give it a flowing look. 

Before: Carousel

Sometimes you grab a quick shot. This was taken at a famous theme park with a little point and shoot camera that was not setup for night shots.

After:  Fantasy Ride

After several false starts, I modified the exposure, cleared some distracting detail, modified the color, and a lot more...
More to come...