Post Processing Challenge #233: The San Francisco Bay Bridge

I took this photo of the San Francisco Bay Bridge on a recent photo walk after work. Lots of challenges in post and I ended up giving up on it, but I still think there's potential.



The challenges as I see them:

• Perspective needs correction.
• Mixed light sources so white balance is a challenge.
• Long shutter, handheld, so there's some motion blur obscuring details.

But that's just my take. What's yours?

JPG: Download on Google Drive
RAW: Download on Google Drive

Contest will close Friday, February 19 at 9:00 PM PT.

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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. "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.

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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 dlpruk 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.

 

Nice work folks, fun to see the different ways you can take a photo.

#3: vorlon1. I tended to prefer the B&W edits, maybe because I found the color in this photo so challenging. Fun fact: The bridge is gray, the red in the photo came from the odd mix of light sources and the camera white balancing to the lower half.

#2: Scotsman. Another nice B&W, and I like the crop.

#1: AussiePhil. I'll be honest, I actually don't like the water in this edit, but the streaking stars address what I think was subconsciously bothering me most about this photo -- the massive negative space in the upper-right corner and the visual imbalance. I would've never thought to do this sort of edit but I think it works.

Thanks for playing.