48-Hour Post-Processing Challenge #559 (closed, results announced)

[WhidbeyLVR]

It took me longer than expected to find a challenge which satisfied me. I hope you enjoy it.

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Cold. Steel. Erection. Edifice. This was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 40 years, until the Chrysler Building surpassed it in 1930. A few of you may be familiar with it.

I am providing a 3-exposure bracket. Use whatever suits you.

RAW and JPG files are here.

Contest will close Friday, June 5th at 6PM, Pacific Daylight Time (UTC -7)

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Post-Processing Challenge Rules:

1. The Challenge Master provides an image to be "improved" upon by way of post-processing, as well as a closing date for entries.
2. Entrants are to post their entries, visible in this thread, at a resolution of 1000 to 1600 pixels in the longest dimension, prior to the closing date.
3. Each entrant is allowed two entries in the Challenge. Please mark entries clearly by number.
4. At the close of the Challenge, the Challenge Master will select a Winner and Runners-up.
5. The Winner of the Challenge is honored as the Master of the next Challenge.

Notes:

• The image(s) used for the challenge must be the Challenge Master's own. Source images are posted solely for the purpose of this Challenge and are not posted to invite critique or criticism nor for other uses. If Entrants post their entries at a photo sharing site, they should credit the owner of the original source material.
• "Improve" is a subjective term, and may include many creative ideas, as well as traditional "fixing". The Challenge Master agrees that Entrants may make any changes they deem fit in their entries.
• Entrants are encouraged to enter their best efforts even if this means replacing versions. Please do this by exchanging your latest effort with the image you wish to remove. You may note the replacement in a comment in the edited posting.
• Entrants are also encouraged to share the tools and techniques used for their entries, however this is not a requirement for entry.
• As we all know, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. The Challenge Master is encouraged (but not required) to state the criteria used to decide upon a Winner. While we may not all agree with the result, the Challenge Master's decision is final. Please refrain from posting adverse comment.
• If the Winner is unable to post a new Challenge within five days, the honor passes to the next Runner-up.

 

[Mooglover]

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[BosseBe]

Used all 3 raw files, sent to NIK Efex HDR from DxO PL3 (NIK needs TIFF and I wanted the lens corrections).
Then back in PL3 for horizon adjustment and crop. (And of course some small adjustments.)
Entry #1:

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[BosseBe]

Used the mid raw file in PL3.
Entry #2:

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[BosseBe]

This was a fun picture to work on, really appreciate the HDR possibility!
But since my second entry is just the mid raw file, I wanted to try the other 2 also, so here are 2 pictures out of contest.
Darkest:

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And brightest:

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[GregRed]

#1

Aurora HDR > Topaz Denoise AI

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[WhidbeyLVR]

This was a fun picture to work on, really appreciate the HDR possibility!
But since my second entry is just the mid raw file, I wanted to try the other 2 also, so here are 2 pictures out of contest.
Darkest:
View attachment 827404
And brightest:
View attachment 827405

For folks working with the raw files, I suspected there was probably enough DR in any of the images to produce a decent image. Thanks for confirming it. Darkest gets muddy/noisy in the shadows and brightest loses a few highlights in the sky, but not bad.

 

[BosseBe]

Darkest gets muddy/noisy in the shadows and brightest loses a few highlights in the sky, but not bad.

That might actually be my processing! But I have found earlier that you can get good results from pictures with +-2 EV. But the effort to get that result is higher.

 

[Mooglover]

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[RichardC]

Entry 1. Great to have the three exposures to play with.

Adjusted the exposure on each to get three similar densities, then blended them in Lightroom. The result was a relatively noise free image with an extended dynamic range. Over to Photoshop where I added a few LUTs and a gradient map to push the warm colours, and increased the saturation in the sky while masking out most of the foreground.

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[Robert Davidson]

Great challenge Lyle. Beautiful shot.
I used the raw files and processed in Aurora and Pshop.
#1.

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[Robert Davidson]

#2.

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[relic]

Wonderful shot and a difficult challenge. I used the middle exposure, edited it in DxO PL2 then Elements. I tweaked, fiddled, and tinkered without really knowing where I'm heading. I had to stop somewhere (so I cannot call what I've done truthfully editing). Too challenging for me (which, of course, means it is an excellent challenge).

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[danielallen]

I love the fact that you included 3 exposures to play with on this. What a beautiful scene!

When processing this image, I chose to try and keep a similar feel for how I imagine the scene based on the images--including the limited dynamic range. But first, I equalized the dynamic range using Aurora HDR 2019. Then I opened it up in Photoshop and removed the people from the scene, which I thought were distracting me from the main focus of the scene: the Eiffel Tower against the beautiful sunset. Then I correct some of the fringing and noise in the image before bringing the image into Luminar 4 to apply several layers to build up the sunset and shadow areas, finishing everything off with an Orton Effect to give it that "glow" that I'm really loving right now in my images (with the softness reduced so it doesn't get too blurry.)

Fun shot! Really had fun editing it!

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[gwydionjhr]

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[mnhoj]

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[Jay_M]

Very good image! Played around with the free copy of Aurora HDR I just got. Merged the 3 RAW files, and then made some more minor tweaks in Luminar.

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[rpatodia]

Normal adjustments in DxO PL2 with some horizon correction and mior cropping

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[rpatodia]

used Nik HDR on above pic

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[RichardC]

Entry 2

Starting point was my entry 1. Lightened the top of the tower, deepened colours in centre of sky. Darkened the grass and some foliage to reduce the HDR look whilst retaining highlights on the people's heads. Removed the largest highlight from the sky. I normally don't worry about the sun being blown out - it's supposed to be bright, therefore I left the smaller highlight in.

On a new layer, added some white and orange paint dabs to the lamps and posts. Masked off any unwanted spillage, reduced the opacity and set the blend mode to colour dodge. This method of adding shine/glow was on a Piximperfect Youtube video a while ago.

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