60 Hour Post-Processing Challenge #596 - Closed, Winners Announced

[Hendrik]

In September 2014 my wife and I travelled to Turkey to visit our son, who was studying there. We talked him into a side-trip to Kapadokya and allowed him to talk us into a balloon ride. This image was taken at the start of the ascension, around 25 minutes before sunrise. It was the point at which we began to realize we were going to have a lot of company in the air. They launched the limit that morning, 99 balloons. There was a second wave happening, as well, once the first was landed. The E-M5 and I did as well as we could with this one, considering, but that still leaves plenty of room for improvement. Strut your stuff and have fun!

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The orf may be found here
The jpg may be found here

The contest will run until about noon on Wednesday, September 30, (Boston time, EDT, UTC-4).
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Post-Processing Challenge Rules:

1. The Challenge Master provides an image or images 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.

 

[Robert Davidson]

#1.

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[Henk van Slooten]

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[rpatodia]

It must have been a great experience. Usual adjustments in DxO PL2

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[rpatodia]

Extrapolated for slightly later part of the day

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[BosseBe]

Here is some inspirational music to listen to while you try out your processing:

 

[relic]

Wonderful challenge. Edited raw file in DxO Pl2 then tweaked in Elements.

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[BosseBe]

"Von 99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont"

I am sorry to say that my skill levels aren't up to add the other 90 balloons!
So I had to work with it as it was.
Used Nik Efex Dfine2 in addition to Prime Noise in DxO to try to further suppress noise, I don't know if I really see any difference.
Entry #1:

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[BosseBe]

And since it is me, a B&W version, not specifically of the above but similar.
Entry #2:

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[WhidbeyLVR]

Entry #1

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[frankmulder]

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Went for a bright version. Wanted the "Türk hava kurumu" to be visible. It means "Turkish Aeronautical Association". I have learned a little bit of Turkish and it makes sense:

Türk = Turkish
hava = air
kurum = association

 

[Robert Davidson]

#2.

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[Paul C]

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I am impressed by all those who did this in colour.....much respect to you all. Please tell us how you did it !

My fix when in trouble with exposures and strange colour temperatures is usually to switch to B&W.

My " fix" when it is me on the spot with the camera in my hands is to handhold a sequence of 3-5 frames of Auto Exposure Bracket over 3-5 stops of dynamic range . This gives me both a range of exposures to work with afterwards - and has a second use in the image fusion programme in Aurora HDR which can reassemble them as a "best fit" and often recover printable images from challenging situations like these. This works surprisingly well even for handheld images of slow moving subjects shot with a moderate wideangle lens - shhoting in RAW is always best.

Aurora HDR 2018 is available as a free full function download - to tempt you into their full paid for processing system. I highy reccommend it!

 

[relic]

Entry #2: simply a tweak of entry #1 to try to "improve" the sky and the color of the main balloon.

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[betamax]

Processed in Dxo PL3 then into denoise AI.

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[BosseBe]

View attachment 849697

I am impressed by all those who did this in colour.....much respect to you all. Please tell us how you did it !

My fix when in trouble with exposures and strange colour temperatures is usually to switch to B&W.

My " fix" when it is me on the spot with the camera in my hands is to handhold a sequence of 3-5 frames of Auto Exposure Bracket over 3-5 stops of dynamic range . This gives me both a range of exposures to work with afterwards - and has a second use in the image fusion programme in Aurora HDR which can reassemble them as a "best fit" and often recover printable images from challenging situations like these. This works surprisingly well even for handheld images of slow moving subjects shot with a moderate wideangle lens - shhoting in RAW is always best.

Aurora HDR 2018 is available as a free full function download - to tempt you into their full paid for processing system. I highy reccommend it!

Sorry, I have become lazy, I no longer give a description of what I am doing in DxO PL3, maybe because I have a standard recipe that works well with some tweaks.
I don't know what you use for PP'ing so here is a short description of what I do in DxO PL3. (OK, OK, maybe it wasn't me you was thinking of, but you asked for it and here it is!)

I use the standard DxO preset to get lens correction and colours that I like, then I add Clearview, Contrast (using the Auto for Micro and setting contrast and fine contrast to the same value as Micro), then maybe some saturation and vibrancy (+20) and finally a tone curve, might be Gamma or S-curve of some kind, All done to taste.

Hope this helps!

I got the free Aurora HDR 2018 a while ago and really like it for merging files, (I tend to make Tiff's in DxO first to get the lens correction and then use Aurora).

 

[Rob Rider]

#1 Opened the .ORF in photoshop ACR I reduced the noise in NIK Define, adjusted to taste, used HSL to accent the warm colors and some burning and dodging. I selected the sky and darkened and increased the contrast. I tried to imagine what it looked like in person. It must have been great!

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[Rob Rider]

#2
A B+W Using Silver Efex 2 and a new crop.

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[WhidbeyLVR]

Entry #2:

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slightly different crop
lit up another balloon
other minor diffs

 

[Hendrik]

I knew I had something to do today sometime between returning from the dentist and the arrival of the plumber. Silly me, I thought it was lunch. Wrong! The challenge is closed. I will mull the problem later tonight. Results then.