Another month has gone by and it’s time again for the ABFriday One Photo Focus, sponsored by Stacy Fisher over at Visual Venturing. A number of us take the same picture and post process it with our own interpretation. It’s always fun to see what everyone does! This month’s entries can be found here and was provided by Helen Chen.

The original photo is on the left. I applied a few standard adjustments to improve clarity, contrast and exposure. I did some minor cloning of the inside doorway to get rid of the red object and some of the speckles in the upper half of the doorway. After some debate, I also cropped it down. The wall on the left was interesting, but I found it hard to figure out where I wanted to look! After that, the brick wall to the left was burned out and I used a masking brush to darken it down more. I also darkened the inside of the doorway. Since it was a bit junky, I felt a darker look made it more mysterious.

Original Photo

Picture after Lightroom edit

Now it was time to play with some Topaz Labs filters! This one was my favorite – a charcoal picture done in Topaz Impressions, with a dark vignette around the outside.

My intention was to create something mysterious and creepy looking. The charcoal didn’t do that, but I felt it really highlighted the jumble of vines and bricks.

This was a close favorite. It’s the same picture as above, but before I turned it into a charcoal drawing. This used Topaz Labs Adjust “Brilliant Cold” and “Dark Night”. It turned it into something dark and mysterious, while bringing up a lot of interesting colors and textures. I had to lighten the exposure more after doing that because it got too dark.

This one used Topaz Labs Restyle, “Swamp and Sherpa” (those names!). It’s a little too dark and I didn’t like the colors as well as on the one above. I could easily lighten it, but didn’t want to play with it any further since it wasn’t going to be my final version.

And here was my least favorite. It’s really hard to tell what the picture even is. It used Topaz Labs Simplified “BuzSim”. I like the bricks and foliage, but the vines to the right of the door are kind of weird and too blotchy for my taste. I’d also do a little more cloning on the inside left of the doorway, where that sliver of light is. On the other pictures it works as is, but in this one it doesn’t fit in.

So what do you think? Did I pick the right one or should I have picked something else? Let me know!

Final Version! Topaz Labs Impressions, with a dark vignette

Original Photo

Picture after Lightroom edit

Topaz Labs Adjust – Brilliant Cold and Dark Night

Topaz Labs Restyle “Swamp and Sherpa”

Topaz Labs Simplified BuzSim

To see how I’ve edited other photographs, click here.

ABFriday Photography Topaz Labs abandoned building ABFriday Helen Chen jungle One Photo Focus Stacy Fischer Topaz Adjust Topaz Impressions Topaz Labs Visual Venturing