60-hour Post Processing Challenge #622 - Winners Announced

[Hendrik]

This image was taken during an April, 2015 trip of a bunch of right-coasters to southwest Utah. We were on our way from Las Vegas, our port of arrival, to a few hours photographing at Bryce Canyon. But first, a chance encounter with red rock in sunlight. Here’s some catnip for all you cool cats out there in PP-land. Red rock, interesting clouds, darks and lights, variety and mood galore. Have at it and have fun.

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The orf may be found here
The Olympus Workspace-generated jpg may be found here

The challenge will close on Tuesday, December 29 at 12:00pm EST (Boston time, UTC -5).
Post-Processing Challenge Rules

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.

1. 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.
2. Each entrant is allowed two entries in the Challenge.
3. At the close of the Challenge, the Challenge Master will select a Winner and Runners-up.
4. The Winner of the challenge is honoured as the Master of the next Challenge

Notes:

• Images provided by Challenge Masters must be their own. They are posted solely for the purpose of this Challenge; not 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 image.
• "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 strongly encouraged to share the tools and techniques used for their entries, however this is not a requirement for entry.
• Compositing is allowed provided the use of the donor image does not violate any licensing or copyright restrictions.
• 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 honour passes to the next Runner-up.

 

[rpatodia]

processed in DxO PL2 followed by 16:9 crop

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[rpatodia]

B&W version

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[Zeus1]

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[frankmulder]

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[Robert Davidson]

#1.

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[RichardC]

Entry 1

Some minor adjustments in PS.

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Tried to create a comic strip look with two pairs of filters and a wet brush.

Usual processing adjustments were done in ACR then the layer duplicated. Both layers turned to smart objects. The black borders on top layer were made with a combination of the photocopy and cut out filters. The layer below was subjected to water paper and watercolour filters. The two layers were blended together (top layer linear dodge). The vast majority of the effect has come from the top layer.

Made a stamp layer, smoothed the sky out with a wet brush, added a vignette and added a border.

 

[Zeus1]

Entry #2

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[BosseBe]

Entry #1:

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Just the usual in DxO, Default Preset, Smart lighting, Clearview, Contrast, a little bit of Vibrance and Saturation, finally an inverted S-curve.

 

[Henk van Slooten]

I tried to add some intensity to the picture

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[RichardC]

A variation on my entry above. Tried some different filter settings and dodged some of the dark areas.

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[frankmulder]

Like @RichardC, I also thought an "artistic" rendering would fit this image well. Here's my take at it (entry #2):

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[WhidbeyLVR]

Entry 1

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From the raw.

• Minor crop.
• Adjusted shadow values.
• Minimal color tweaks.
• Local contrast and sharpening.
• Misplaced the sign somewhere (I think the lions took ate it).

 

[WhidbeyLVR]

Entry 2, the painted version

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[BosseBe]

Didn't like my experiments in B&W so I went into NIK SilverEfex and made this.
Entry #2:

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[relic]

I made only minor tweaking (light levels, contrast, etc.) and, although it does not appear that the sun was low, I decided nevertheless to warm up the light (Nik Color Efex) as I thought the rocks might look nice in late afternoons sun (probably a bad idea...)

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[Hendrik]

Twenty four hours left to run.

 

[relic]

Entry #2: I stole the idea from @mcgillro (previous challenge) and applied Nik Silver Efex ("Antique plate II") to entry #1,

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[ijnstu]

Gave it a try in Lightroom. Ended up chopping off some of the right side, did some color adjustments, and used a radial filter to get some light into background and clouds (a tad blown out in that one cloud now, but I think it works)

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[relic]

Gave it a try in Lightroom. Ended up chopping off some of the right side, did some color adjustments, and used a radial filter to get some light into background and clouds (a tad blown out in that one cloud now, but I think it works)

Welcome to the forum and to the challenge!