If you have been following my blog for the last 6 months you will have noticed that on Fridays I have been participating in a forum with other bloggers called, The Before and After Forum. The forum is hosted by Stacy Fischer on her blog Visual Venturing. How I stumbled upon her blog I do not remember but I think it was via Cee Cees blog when looking for challenges to participate in. At the time I was trying to reorganise my blogging habits and make my blog more focused. I had previously on Fridays had a regular post called, Re-edit Friday that then morphed into Editing Friday and the Before and After forum fit well as a replacement and a way to become more engaged in the photography community on WordPress.
What is the forum? Some of you may be asking.
The before and after forum is where photographers of all levels post and after editing photo, with some explanation of how they got the wow factor in that shot. Some people like to give a brief explanation, while others post videos as well as those like me that like give a blow by blow of the editing process. The forum is a great place to learn new skills as well as sharing those little editing secrets with others. You don’t need to have Photoshop to take part; any editing software or application can be used as it is the finale image that is everything.
I am sure everyone who has been taking part in the forum, regulars and semi regulars, have learned a lot form each other. I have learnt form Robin a few useful things about the content aware tool which has really helped with the way that now clean some images, from Stacy I have been learning a few secrets about Lightroom, Loré Dombaj of Snow’s Fissures and Fractures has shown me the amazing things you can do with pic monkey (an editing app I have previously over looked) and from Emilio how even if you think an image is beyond saving there are some tricks you can use.
Why am I talking about the forum and not posting my before and after pictures?
This week we have decided, after a fantastic idea form Loré Dombaj, for you dear reader to choose the image that all participants of the before and after forum will edit on the 6th month anniversary of the forum. To help choose the image that will be edited, head to Stacy’s blog. You will have until the 5th of November to vote. The chosen picture will be revealed on the 7th of November. The following week we will then all edit the photo and see how we have each approached the same image. This is great experiment as we all approach photo editing differently.
Next week we will be showing off our editing skills as normal. If you wish to take part in the forum please head here to read the rules. As with everything, the more people who take part the more fun it is.
To make sure you don’t miss out on any editing fun today you can see the images from all of my previous before and after posts below. Click on the images to see how I got the wow in them.
Sun House
Elegant Lamp
Lounge
Floating Pomegranate
Hand Painted Photo
Stormy Skies
Macro Cricket
Infrared
From Wysoki Kamien
Toy Camera
Mix Media Wedding Portrait
Macro Spider
Astronomical Clock
Park Life
Uniejow Altar in 32bit
Count Down to the Show
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If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement
Aperture64 
Thanks for the information–will definitely view the forum. Enjoy your work.
Please do and if you have time try and take part it is really fun.
Nice collection of shots. I love the miniature effect on Toy Camera, plus the Mix Media Wedding Portrait. Excellent!
Thanks for the comment, I have used the Mix media a few times now as people have been asking for some shots to be edited this way, it is really creative and the result is different each time.
Great post, Ben. And thank you for your kind words. I like the idea of showing some of our previous work in ABF, hope you don’t mind if I steal your idea for my post. 😀
Go a head and copy the idea, I thought it would be a good way to attract more people to take part.
What a great post, Ben! And, like Loré, what a wonderful idea to include all your past Forum photos! Thanks for being such a wonderful supporter of the Forum. It was fun to learn about how you decided to become involved 🙂
It is my pleasure to take part in the forum, I really enjoy the post and the community that had been created around them.