Adding Drama to Backyard Cricket?

[jasosmith]

I took these photos yesterday during a XMAS backyard Cricket Match (Thats what we do Down Under in the holidays).

I wanted to tone, dodge, burn these the images to create a more dramatic, nostalic look - have tried a few things but have 'retouchers block' today.

I thought I would throw these out there to see what a collection of creative minds could come up with.

[jasosmith]

Cmon guys - if nothing moody or nostalgic comes to mind can someone assist with some flames around the ball....

[Gary Richardson]

Hi jasosmith,

As if you Aussies don't get enough batting practice.

Had a quick play with your image, and this is what I came up with.

Bit strapped for time at the moment, so if you need to know what I did just ask, and I'll post later.

[Cassidy]

A quickie and an obvious one

[jasosmith]

I like it - I was thinking along a different line but I think my Nephew would love something like this.....

Cass - you have obviously used some type of motion blur on the ball. Can you elaborate.....

[jasosmith]

Gary - now we have lost Warney and McGrath the Barmy Army may stand a chance of getting the ashes back.....cheers

[Lasa]

Smoking!
Lasa

[exp5]

Merry Christmas

[Cassidy]

Jaso, I copied the ball onto a new layer, enlarged the ball, ran the wind filter on it (maybe under stylise?, had trouble finding it myself), erased any parts not required such as parts of fence on enlarged ball copy. Being a quick and dirty used the rectangular selection, lol

[johnnieB]

great shot.

[ExclamPt]

Just a quick attempt...

[Kraellin]

i'm sorry, but every time i hear the word 'cricket', i instantly fall into a deep stupor of confusion. 'rugby' does the same thing to me. it comes from endless conversations with brits and old brit colony folks that have tried to teach me the rules of these games. therefore anything even loosely associated with either of these two renders me incapble of offering aid

[Sanda]

maybe you could add Warnie up the other end.

[Gary Richardson]

Originally Posted by jasosmith

Gary - now we have lost Warney and McGrath the Barmy Army may stand a chance of getting the ashes back.....cheers

And Santa might really exist.


OK, now to get down to things.

Duplicated image to new layer twice. (now 3 layers)
Extracted ball from top layer. Desaturated middle layer.

Duplicated ball layer (top one) twice. (now 5 layers BG, desat BG, and 3 ball layers). Top ball layer leave alone. Middle ball layer resize and move. Bottom ball layer resize and move. Desat middle and bottom ball layers.

Blur top ball layer with motion blur.

Make middle ball layer active. Add new layer above it and set it to colour blend. Paint in colour sampled from top ball, reduce layer opacity. Merge with middle ball layer. apply motion blur.

Discard BG.

Flatten Image.

Select elipse, then select inverse. Click on Quick Mask to convert this to a rubylith mask. Blur mask using Gaussian Blur, convert back to selection.

Copy paste to new layer. Apply levels to darken it and slight Gaussian Blur.

Flatten Image.

Add Matt.

Sounds complex, but much easier to do than to describe, any questions just ask.

Originally Posted by Kraellin

i'm sorry, but every time i hear the word 'cricket', i instantly fall into a deep stupor of confusion. 'rugby' does the same thing to me. it comes from endless conversations with brits and old brit colony folks that have tried to teach me the rules of these games. therefore anything even loosely associated with either of these two renders me incapble of offering aid

Yeh Craig, I'm the same when anyone tries to tell me that baseball (rounders) is an interesting game, or that ice hockey should just be called hockey, that American Football is a tough game (yeah must really hurt with all that body armour on), or that there's a point to basketball.

[Littlecoo]

Lasa... nice bit of ball tampering you've done there LOL! Maybe pump up the magenta cast in the boy's skin tones... what's cricket out in the Aussie summer sun without the sunburn esp if you've been camped out at the Gabba leg of the Ashes tour!