Post Processing Game

navydoc wrote in post #17149858
... This has been a tough one for me decide and it was a close call but I think cacawcacaw's edit is the winner this week. Congrats and I look forward to seeing what you'll put up for the next challenge....

Thanks for the honor!

I wanted to use one from last weekend but I've been taking mostly jpg snapshots lately. And unfortunately, clouds spoiled the opportunity to get a shot of the Super Moon directly behind Mt. Whitney. Here's one that is a definite challenge. Hope there's enough there to work with. Click on the image for the CR2 link.

HTTP response: 401 | MIME changed to 'text/html'

Tough picture... not a lot of subject matter.

My attempt. I gave the dogs something to look at.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/pekB​Sg

Good edits so far! Probably due to this being a not-so-good photo to start with, there's no obvious "correct" edit for it. I like that.

And (for me anyway) this photo represents a recurring real-world situation; where even though it's not a great capture, it's the best shot I have of something I want to remember. I was shooting the lake and surrounding peaks with my Tokina 12-24 f/4 and grabbed this snapshot as I was walking back to the camper. As a result of the slower wide-angle lens, moving subjects, and the dark forest, this image is definitely one that requires a whole make-over, not just slight adjustments.

I'll pick my favorite tomorrow night September 16. Feel free to submit multiple entries and no problem with altering the photo in any way you like.
Edit: Extended to Friday.

cacawcacaw wrote in post #17155786
...

I'll pick my favorite tomorrow night September 16. Feel free to submit multiple entries and no problem with altering the photo in any way you like.

Probably should let it run on through Friday. Some may not check or upload their images till later in the week.

Thanks Jerry, I will extend it. (I had forgotten if there was a set length of time.)

I'll pick my favorite late Friday night, 9/19/14.

I'm not going to enter an edit this week but if anyone is interested, here's what I came up with:

https://farm6.staticfl​ickr.com …49828705_22a729​1e9f_o.jpg

navydoc wrote in post #17156142
I'm not going to enter an edit this week but if anyone is interested, here's what I came up with:

https://farm6.staticfl​ickr.com …49828705_22a729​1e9f_o.jpg

Mind sharing your secrets? Yours looks far different (and better) than anything I could get using the Lightroom sharpening sliders.

Hope you don't mind if I put up a preview of your image:

cacawcacaw wrote in post #17156296
Mind sharing your secrets? Yours looks far different (and better) than anything I could get using the Lightroom sharpening sliders.

Hope you don't mind if I put up a preview of your image:

I'm thinking nik structure???

cacawcacaw wrote in post #17156296
Mind sharing your secrets? Yours looks far different (and better) than anything I could get using the Lightroom sharpening sliders.

Hope you don't mind if I put up a preview of your image:

https://dl.dropbox.com …q0lq8my6/NavyDo​c.jpg?dl=0

Thanks. It's a bit trite to say I did a little of this and a little of that but that's about the size of it. I began my edit by using Photoninja as my raw editor. Once I was satisfied there, it opened back in Photoshop CC 2014. For this image, I opened it back up in the PS camera raw editor and made additional adjustments to exposure, highlights and shadows. I used an adjustment brush on both dogs to bring them out of a darkened image.

Besides wanting to feature the dogs, I also didn't like the blue skies I was getting so I cropped to 16 x 9. I also used Topaz Simplify to bring out the colors and to give the image a bit of a painted look. Just prior to applying the Topaz plugin, I used the new shake reduction sharpening in CC 2014 too.

That's about it...oh, I also added a levels adjustment to tweak the white balance more to my liking as well. Unfortunately, I didn't save the full sized image but I do have the psd file with the image sized to 2560 x 1440.

My submission for the week
I personally love it! I liked this picture, to me it wasn't too hard, it just took a lot of work.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/peLo​SA

Gene, that shake reduction tool almost justifies the upgrade to Creative Cloud. Pretty cool.

BA, I hate the feeling of not knowing where the dogs have run off to, but you came up with a really interesting mood.

cacawcacaw wrote in post #17156978
BA, I hate the feeling of not knowing where the dogs have run off to, but you came up with a really interesting mood.

Lmao.. Yeah.. I probably could have left the one in but I wanted the placement of the rock and the landscape to help with the mood more. I thought the dog could be distracting to the mood although they are beautiful dogs.

cacawcacaw i saw in the exif that you are still at the 1.2.5 firmware on your 7D ...
You should update it (the last is version 2.0.5), you will have an extended buffer in drive mode (almost double), better control on ISO, and some new extended functions/set up
>> http://www.usa.canon.c​om …rd_display/EOS7​D_firmware