Week One. One Four Challenge (May).

It is time for the One Four Challenge again! I have to say that I missed doing it in April, but I was so busy that it really worked out for the best. Unfortunately, I am still a bit crazy busy and a tad stressed. Luckily though, at one point in April, I was playing around with a photo and created several edits on it. So, those are the edits I will use for May’s One Four Challenge. If I didn’t, I may not be able to contribute since I am going from one trip to another and then go right back into rotating from my two jobs. April was hard, but it seems May will be even more challenging. (There is some fun squeezed in though for my sanity.)

The only down side of this is that I really didn’t take notes on what I did to get my final results. With that in mind, May will simply be view of the before and after results of my edits with maybe a few speculative ideas on what I think I may have done.

The original photo was a simply iPhone photo that I took at Disney World’s Epcot Center in March of this year. The flower captured my attention and I took a quick shot as me and my friends walked around.

This is my Week One edit for May. I know I used a filter in Photoshop CS5, but frankly, I can’t recall which one. Either way, I liked the results on the flower. At the time, I must have not noticed or cared about the blue blobs on the right side of the photo. Looking at it weeks later though, I think they are a bit distracting.

Therefore, I took my edit and edited it a bit more. To reduce the distraction from the blue blobs, I used the clone stamp tool. It is a fairly simple tool. All you need to do is select the area on the picture you want to clone, click and then go to where you want that clones piece to go and click and drag again. The key to this is to do it sparingly and with the opacity down. Otherwise, you create an obvious pattern that looks fake and even more distracting. Here is my result after cloning some greens and blacks over the blues.

What do you think? Did you notice the blue blobs in the first place? Have any ideas on what filter I could have used? Like or not like this edit?

Feel free to give comments and suggestions. I am not easily offended and like hearing the viewpoints of others. I find it is the best way to learn, so comment away.

If you are not familiar with the One Four Challenge, make sure you go to the reader and search One Four Challenge to find others submissions. It truly is a great challenge. Make sure you check out the host of the challenge too. Robyn has an incredible site holding utterly stunning photos. Just click on the badge below for Robyn’s Week One edit for May.