Before and After - The Weekly Editing Challenge

RAWtherapee conversion
Vertical perspective distortion correction 8.8, Crop
Pastels -15, vignette -.74, grad 1.45@-128deg. feather 47 center x -32
chromaticity 28 contrast 33 lightness 25, color mix adjustments

Adjusted colour temperature, clarity & vibrance in Camera RAW. Also adjusted blue and yellow levels. Opened in CS6, duplicated BG, straightened and cropped, LAB colour boost. Gradient tool set with colours to dark blue and light blue and then brought back colour on RH side to balance better. Smart sharpen in luminosity mode to finish.

Kudos, Renata. The distortion correction nailed it. Good choice, Mark.

This new one has some interesting possibilities.

LR edits

Here's my try at it.

I decided try try some outlandish editing. Cropped and straightened the buildings, added the sky then sharpened and increased detail, contrast, highlights and shadows.

I also decided to go in a different direction.

Straightened and did some levels adjustments in LR. Brought into PS and masked out the sky, did a high-pass filter, added the starry sky. Converted to BW with Silver Effects Pro adding structure. Back into LR for some clarity and sharpening/noise reduction and final crop.

Guys, I totally enjoyed your creative juices and had a hard time to decide which edit was the best. They are all great! I feel pretty rotten that I have to select one of them

vertigo235 wrote in post #17664149

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/we9U​Xc PX9A8076[1] by Josh Jones, on Flickr

Vertigo, I really like your edit for its clean look, lovely colors and the overall city look. Nice job!

Benitoite wrote in post #17664334
RAWtherapee conversion
Vertical perspective distortion correction 8.8, Crop
Pastels -15, vignette -.74, grad 1.45@-128deg. feather 47 center x -32
chromaticity 28 contrast 33 lightness 25, color mix adjustments

Hosted photo: posted by Benitoite in
./showthread.php?p=176​64334&i=i11194313
forum: Competitions

Background, Color curves adjustments in GIMP.

Hosted photo: posted by Benitoite in
./showthread.php?p=176​64334&i=i213385706
forum: Competitions

Benitoite, man you really went into a lot of trouble with your edit. Very creative and a detailed description of how you achieved the look. I just find the sky a little too distracting and I feel its competing with the clean city line.

M_Six wrote in post #17664834
Kudos, Renata. The distortion correction nailed it. Good choice, Mark.

This new one has some interesting possibilities.

Thank you, Mark. I appreciate your words very much

tytlyf wrote in post #17665336
LR edits

Nice and clean, tytlyf, maybe too much of a crop

rjharris wrote in post #17665385
Here's my try at it.

rjharris, lovely edit. I like the way you cropped it. The image is a little grainy, though.

rrblint wrote in post #17670326
I decided try try some outlandish editing. Cropped and straightened the buildings, added the sky then sharpened and increased detail, contrast, highlights and shadows.

Hosted photo: posted by rrblint in
./showthread.php?p=176​70326&i=i222210540
forum: Competitions

Mark, that's really outlandish; I really appreciate your creativity. I'm just wondering if the sky is not overpowering the skyline by being so busy

bumpintheroad wrote in post #17670497
I also decided to go in a different direction.

Straightened and did some levels adjustments in LR. Brought into PS and masked out the sky, did a high-pass filter, added the starry sky. Converted to BW with Silver Effects Pro adding structure. Back into LR for some clarity and sharpening/noise reduction and final crop.

Hosted photo: posted by bumpintheroad in
./showthread.php?p=176​70497&i=i49336266
forum: Competitions

bumpintheroad. I kind of dig the B&W version of the image. Though the sky is starry, I like the subtlety of it. Makes the city look very romantic! Something you would not see in Dallas due to the enormous light and other polution!

So, totally heart-broken to write the lines, I have to go with vertigo's version for its clean look. Love the subtle colors in the sky and the general appeal. I wish I could give you all a chance to be the winner but I had to select one.
So, over to vertigo.
Thank you all for being super creative and courageous. What a wonderful thing to see, so many different versions/visions; each one of them beautiful in its own way.

That was a fun pic to edit, itsallart.

Wow, I'm honored! I'll get a new photo up today sometime. I loved all the edits, especially the composites with the stars

Before and After - The Weekly Editing Challenge
...now compiled into a single, easy to locate thread, that can be added to your subscribe/follow list!

Rules are simple:

• Download the image file from the current week
  
  
• Contestants will have 7 days to edit the image and post their edited version to the thread (1 entry per week)
  
  
• The owner of the original image will choose a winner
  
  
• The winner will copy & paste this post and include a new downloadable image link

  The new image must be unedited / SOOC (straight our of camera), full-resolution, and in a RAW format, ie. CR2, DNG, TIF, etc
  (Dropbox works well for uploading and linking these large files)

That's a tough one. Just cropped, played with color luminosity and reduced noise.

So festive and christmasy on this 100+deg.F. day.

RAWtherapee: Crop, Exposure -1.0; Noise Reduction: luminance 68, detail 63, chrominance 51; edge sharpening on; L*a*b*: lightness -50, contrast 43, Chromaticity 34.
DPP via TIFF: sharpening 250. Resize, jpg output.

Here's my try. Added the background to the masked boat, then tweaked vibrancy and contrast.