This week re-edited photo comes courtesy of Sharpe Dressed Man cosplaying Sinestro from the Green Lantern franchise.
Thaal Sinestro of the planet Korugar in Sector 1417 is an intergalactic super-villain and antagonist of Green Lantern, particularly Hal Jordan. Originally known as the greatest member of the Green Lantern Corps ever to wield a ring, he trained many students including Hal Jordan. The Guardians of the Universe exiled him to the Antimatter Universe after learning he had used his power to set up a dictatorship.
2020 EDIT PROCESS
I started with the basic changes I always do, by adjusting the exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, HSL, and etc. Throughout this project of re-editing my older photos, I do not refer to the original edited the photo so I can see if I would make the same steps or make alternative decisions.
I transferred the photo into Photoshop where I can make more precise changes that Lightroom can’t do as easily. The first of the changes is to manipulate the belt so it doesn’t look as curled up and make it flatter, closer to the body.
The sides of the hips, there were some white marks which I used the patch tool to remove the marks and also in the crotch area used the same techniques to make that area look less,…umm…shall we say noticeable. Sticking with the hip area, there were some small bumps which I used liquify tool to push in those bumps.
In the background, I wanted to remove from the photo the tree on the right side, and through a combination of the patch tool and stamp, I tried to remove the tree whilst leaving as “natural” looking as possible.
Once I was happy with the results, I moved the photo back to Lightroom and decided to add several gradient shades, to boost saturation on the background building and colour sides around the cosplayer to match the colour scheme of the character.
Viewing the two photo side by side, I think there is a vast improvement between the two photos. The extra colours in the 2020 edit just make the photo pops more. Also, the 2020 photo is much lighter where you can see the face more and not covered in shadow.