Mu-43 Post Processing Challenge #111 (72 hours)

esnift

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So here's the next challenge. I'm not really a birder, but saw these two and tried to snag the shot. While I like the idea, it seems to be missing the finishing touch. Let's see what you can make of it.

JPG https://www.hightail.com/download/ZUcxWWVrNkd0d0hOUjhUQw

RAW https://www.hightail.com/download/ZUcxWWVrNkcyWGV5VmNUQw

View attachment 374738


Closes Friday at midnight. Results Saturday morning.


The Rules:

The Challenger will provide any photo that he/she deems worthy of challenging other members to "improve" by way Post Processing. It must be their own photo, and taken with m4/3 equipment. "Improve" is a subjective term, and includes many creative ideas as well as traditional "fixing". The Challenger agrees that entrants may make any changes they deem fit to post in their entry.

The winner of the previous challenge gets to post the next Challenge and serves as the judge for his/her PP challenge.
For obvious purposes, the judge is disqualified from participating in his/her own PP challenge. Instead, he/she should post a photo to start out the challenge.

***** If the winner fails to post a new challenge within five days, the responsibility passes to the runner-up. *****
At the end of the 72-hours (we don't have to be strict about 72-hours, especially with time differences depending on where you are on the globe), the judge will name a winner, a first runner-up, and a second runner-up.

Entrants:

The Challenger's image is posted for the sole purpose of the PP Challenge; it is not posted to invite Critique or Criticism.
Entries shall be limited to 2 per member for each Challenge.

Entrants to post a BBCode link to the Large size image of their PP edit(s), preferably 1024px x npx, or npx x 1024px, if the original image and/or the PP edit allow for these sizes. Also a click-through to the original sized hosted edit if appropriate (but not a requirement for entry). If you post your entry to a photo-hosting site such as Flickr, Photobucket, or a Gallery, etc., please credit the original photographer to make it clear it is not your photograph; something like "Photo taken by xxxxxx over at Mu-43.com" should suffice.

Entrants are strongly encouraged to post the settings and techniques used for their entry, however this is not a requirement for entry.

As we all know, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. We may not all agree with the chosen winners, but the judges decision is final without adverse comment from the Entrants; the judge is encouraged (but not required) to state what criteria he used to decide on a winner.

To make sure we don't break any Mu-43 rules/regulations, by participating in the PP Challenge you are allowing the judge to re-post your image for the sole purpose of announcing the winners in the thread
 

Zeus1

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Cropping, removing the empty space between the 2 birds by cloning out the green branch and using content aware scaling, minor improvements using ACR, some output sharpening restricted to the birds.

p938335689-5.jpg
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
 

ex machina

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I keep intending to participate but then my free nights keep filling up -- going on vacation soon and will miss a lot of competitions then, too.
 
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Maybe a bit overprocessed, but I just did it as a quick edit on my phone in Nokia creative studio. I went for a contrasty film look, and a non standard crop (16/9) with a little clarity, a bit more blue around the outer limits and a color tweak.
GX1•17/2.8•30/2.8
 

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phigmov

Probably Not Walter Kernow
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I like the de-twigifying !

Cropped tight in both of these with differing aspect-ratios, trying to emphasise the Y of the tree-branch and positioning of the birds.

Some enhancement and white-balance tweaking, followed by a velvia-esque Aperture filter for the 16:9 and a Classic Camera filter on the 1:1
 

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esnift

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Dan
Glad to see some more entries. These have all been pretty great, the de-twigifying is exactly what I had in mind. Just a few more hours to go!
 

esnift

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I really liked a lot of these and the twig removal is what my original intent would have been. Brian's crop/composition won me over with a particular charm that I hadn't seen initially.


Second runner up: robbie36

First runner up: Zeus1

Winner: Brian Beezley
 

Brian Beezley

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Oh my goodness. I just did it for practice! Thank you.

I think I'll defer to the next guy or however the rules work. I believe my photographic tastes are somewhat of an outlier, tending toward the ultra natural end of the postprocessing spectrum rather than the artistic. I suspect I'd pick a photo that few would like. So let me just hand it over to someone with more refined taste.

Thanks again, Dan.

Brian
 

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