Mu-43.com's Post Processing Challenge - #15!

[mister_roboto]

#1

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#2

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[dtchan]

Great photo ~

1. LR4 - Increase the shadow slider so I can see the rocks.
2. Color Efex 4 - various adjustments - tonal contrast, contrast range, too many I forgot. A lot is selective edit as I wanted the rocks to stand out more but the sky to still be smooth.
3. LR4 - some film filter.
4. Crop 16:10 - A bit too much much for me so just a wider crop.
5. Added white border.

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[savvy]

Les I took your advice and went in other direction.

Nice ones Ehud, well worth going down an alternate route

 

[Conrad]

My thoughts: the key subject/motion in this picture is vertical, but the overall picture content drives you to a wide-horizontal composition. I went outside my normal approach to solve this, and had myself inspired by Alain Briot. He recently showed an image on LuLa that he stretched vertically because he felt the composition would be better that way.

I did the same. I stretched the image vertically with 20% and cropped to a 4:5 aspect ratio, while framing for the triplet: foreground rocks, middle ground waves, background big rock.

Color balance set to enhance the sunset, exposure, dodging/burning (I dodged the waves slightly to enhance their presence, and burned the sky), noise reduction all in ACR. Resizing and sharpening in PS. And I removed the distracting root/branch.

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[Bokeaji]

And my second try via ipad mini n snap seed and smug mugs awesomizer app. Or whatever it's called. But that just gave me the 3:1 crop which I didn't think to try before. Everything else was snap seed

 

[pzlo]

This one became a co-creation between me and the wife

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[hkpzee]

This is one fine photo. The major issue I found with the original RAW photo was that it appeared quite underexposed. Otherwise, after adjusting for exposure, that is not much to do to improve upon such a fine image.

Both shots are processed in LR3. For the first entry, in 2x3 crop, I went for a slightly warmer look. I actually tried making an HDR out of the image, but for whatever reason, it kept prompting an error. I finally gave up, and just worked on making the original appear like an HDR shot by boosting shadow quite aggressively, and increasing contrast, sharpness, as well as vibrance:

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In the second entry, I tried to use give it a more cinematic feel. Boosted contrast very aggressively, as well as the black slider. Less sharpening applied than the first image, and desaturated quite a bit also. Finished off with a 16x9 crop:

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[Just Jim]

In regards to the cropping I didn't actually mind just a straight 5x7 crop. Alot of times when I'm concerned with the crop from for comp, I'll put a blur filter over it, and flip it upside down. When I do that it tricks me into looking at all the elements of the image over just the impact points. In this picture i really suggest trying it, and there are some very by the book compisition going on in this image, we have a near perfect spiral with the rocks (it's inverted), near perfect rule of thirds can be achieved, near perfect comp balance witht he island and wave at the lower thirds intersecting points.

 

[woody112704]

Here are my 2 attempts, all of it done in LR besides the borders. I wanted to attempt to add some borders to my pictures so figured I'd start with this one. I did a whole bunch of tweaking and several local adjustment brushes and a gradient to get it the way I wanted.

On the second one I basically kept the same settings and turned it black and white and added a red cast to it and brought the contrast down to give it a dreamyish look.

I'm loving participating in these challenges.

1.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody112704/8521032207/" title="challenge by woody112704, on Flickr">

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"1024" height="776" alt="challenge"></a>

2.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody112704/8522143642/" title="challenge1 by woody112704, on Flickr">

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"1024" height="776" alt="challenge1"></a>

 

[tdekany]

Great renditions guys!!!

 

[Mr Hahn]

My first attempt, I might try another one later. I used Aperture 3 with Nik plugins.

 

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

I'll enter these...

Nice image to work with.

Be sure to click the pics.

-Ed-

 

[tdekany]

Great stuff Ed and Hahn!

 

[yktay2]

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[simonz]

Ed, I love the dark foreground which enhances the surf and sky. Both the color and b&w are excellent. Great work.

 

[snaimpally]

I am still learning Lightroom - only part way through the Kelby training. Kind of mucked around and then cropped to 16x9. Very primitive I'm sure compared to some of the great results I have seen here.


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[tdekany]

I immediately liked your version. Very good colors!

I am still learning Lightroom - only part way through the Kelby training. Kind of mucked around and then cropped to 16x9. Very primitive I'm sure compared to some of the great results I have seen here.


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[redalien]

First entry the way I would process it if I were to hang on my wall.

Basic LR adjustments, first in color, then desaturated HSL to get B&W but still be able to adjust luminance on colors.
Cropped 16:9 and removed the birds

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And then second entry is a color version, in this image I tried to emulate the feel of the ocean with a split tone adjustment and really pushed the vibrance up to 100 while bringing saturation down to about 30 I think, among other things, but I think those 2 are the major that contribute the most to the final result.

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[recasper]

Contest Closed - Results Coming Shortly

 

[recasper]

2nd Runner Up

redalien

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​

Personally, I am a black and white shooter at heart. Which makes this tough to admit, but I think this image is best in color. Even though I feel this way, this rendition could still keep my attention with its contrasts and your choice of cropping. I would have liked to see more visibility on the rock face, but otherwise...Well Done!

1st Runner Up

woody112704

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​

Nice! Really digging the colors and mood of this approach. Also, great detail on the waves. Like redalien's before, I still would have loved more visibility in the foreground rocks.

And the Champ is...

Savvy

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​

Of all the images, this one caused me pause every time I reviewed the entries. The crop is great, the increased light on the rock face, the colors in the waves and sky, mixing the warmth of the sun with the rich blue of the sky. Its a wonderfully done pp and my fav of the lot.

This is but a personal opinion, but I think this would be even better if the frame were removed. But thats a minor quibble.

Congrates on the Win! ​

This was a blast everyone. There were so many magnificent techniques and renditions, leaving this to be one hell of a tough decision. I hope everyone had a good time with this piece. Looking forward to what Savvy has for us next.

Word of tip to the upcoming Competition host (Savvy)... at the end, save each image, import folder to Lightroom (or your preferred photo organizer), apply 5 star rating to them all, filter viewing by "5-star ratings" and then while browsing, star them down (or at least try - eliminating entries is unbelievably difficult, lol). After trying a few ways to compare them all, I found this approach my only salvation... Just thought I would share.