48-Hour Post Processing Challenge #648 - Closed - Winner Announced!

[betamax]

Thank everyone for your entries! This was shot at 8:14am so golden hour had ended about 90 minutes earlier. The horizon was only a little out. I think I was fooled by the ridge which is at a slightly angle relative to the horizon which made me think it was out!
There were lots of very similar ’natural’ renditions from Robert, Darek, Lyle, Bo, Frank and Mike. All pretty close to how it looked that morning. All very nice. and warmer takes in both colour and B/W which again, were all great.

However, I also liked the B/W versions. Rob’s version had some pop, perhaps some type of IR filter? The other B/W entries were also nice, but a little more conventional..

Anyway, this was difficult as they all have a certain take that I like, but in the end

3rd place.. Lyle’s Entry 1. I like the emphasis of the browns/oranges in the sun-lit vegetation.

2nd place, @Rob Rider's B/W entry. The sky is a little noisy, but the contrast gives it an attractive edge. My eyes just kept stopping at that photo. I thought long and hard about this one, versus the next one.

1st Place. @frankmulder . The colour version - was a natural take on the day. Very close to how it was that day. Well done!

Over to you Frank!

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[frankmulder]

Thanks a lot! Glad to hear that you perceive the result as natural. I had pushed many sliders in DxO PhotoLab towards the "overcooked" side, like lots of contrast for the clouds and a lot of ClearView for the mountain/forest at the back (with a different colour temperature as well), some extra saturation... I guess local adjustments are the secret here.

For anyone who is interested in the settings I used:

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And local adjustments:

Graduated filter on the bottom left, with shadows lifted and colour temperature increased to 6885:

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Control points for the trees at the back, with more exposure, ClearView, shadows lifted and colour temperature increased to 6670:

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Control point for the clouds, with a lot more contrast and microcontrast:

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[frankmulder]

I will look up an image for the next challenge. I recently came across some older pictures where I still used my Canon G7X, but I guess it's better to pick an MFT image instead (to make sure everyone's software can handle the RAW files).

 

[frankmulder]

New challenge is here: https://www.mu-43.com/threads/48-hour-post-processing-challenge-649.110871/