Well it is one thing be selected to host a challenge it is entirely another to pick a topic and pronounce judgement on the work of fellow Pentaxians.

For this challenge I want to explore the processes between seeing a photo opportunity in the field, making the exposure and producing the final article. As an example I post the following.

I took this while wandering about on the river bank on the Murray River in South Australia. Seeing a water skier in the distance, I thought there might be something with the setting sun. Water skiers move pretty quickly and there was no time to fit a longer lens or get in a better position. With quickly fading light, I took what I could. There was only one of many exposures where I thought I had something. In camera that looked somewhat promising. The RAW file back on the laptop looked less so.





After processing in Lightroom, cropping, contrast and levels adjustments a rather bland image became what I saw in my mind when I first noticed the skier.By the way this one was my first and only successful PEG submission.



So here is the challenge for this week. Submit two images to demonstrate how a perhaps not so well executed capture can become what you first envisaged in the field. One the original straight out of camera and the final result with a brief description of you went about it.

Good luck. I will close the challenge on Monday July 4th Australian Eastern Standard Time




The Rules

Rules
1. Post ONE photo (max 1024x1024).
2. The photo must portray an interpretation of the theme.
3. Post your single picture in this thread and explain what motivated you to take the picture and/or how you feel it represents the weekly theme (especially if it's not obvious).
4. The challenge is interactive. Any response is welcome.
5. The judge will pick the WINNERS and choose one of them to be the judge for the next week.
6. This challenge runs for 7 days plus an additional day for the judge to choose the winners.
7. Any Pentax (or Ricoh DSLR ) camera can be used.
8. Pictures can be from any time frame, not just within the week of the current theme.
9. In case the winner of a challenge is unable to become the judge for the next challenge, then the winner will PM the #2 winner for that person to be the judge.

For the previous challenge, see Weekly Challenge 354

[atupdate]

People need to remember that the out of camera Raw images will look really poor compared to the out of camera JPEGs. It isn't that those who shot Raw have to "save" their images more, there is just more data to work with, as shown by Bruce's example.

Tim

[Tamia]

This is an interesting theme, Bruce, and I look forward to what people come up with.

I'll go with a shot from a narrow reach of river that's in a relatively deep wooded valley which is oriented NW-SE. Here's the original version, reduced in size to fit but otherwise not edited:



Shot in mid-morning, early October, with a Pentax K-5IIs, Pentax-M 28/2.8, 1/15s, f8, ISO 80, shot in JPEG, handheld.

This particular low ledge drop has a convoluted edge and this creates beautiful smooth current lines before the turbulence below. The water reflects the sun-highlighted treetops, which were just starting to "color up" with early autumn. Geography limits where you can perch near here, but luckily, I was able to capture the color reflections, even though the camera's exact position is critical. Too high or low and the reflections aren't visible.

The photo out of camera was underexposed (deliberately to avoid blowing the whitewater highlights). I cropped to a 16:9 format to emphasize the portion of the picture I'd set out to capture. After curves adjustment, then a boost to contrast and color in GraphicConverter, I also did a bit more processing than I usually do, using brushes (in GIMP) to define some of the ledge drop current lines until I achieved the exact view my mind's eye remembered. Finally, I flipped the photo horizontally, thereby aligning the river's natural flow with our natural left-to-right "reading" preference. I'm sure those with better PP skills could come out with a better shot (especially with those whitewater highlights), but I like my final version...

Reflecting Autumn Hillside

[RGlasel]

Sometimes bouncing your flash isn't an option. This was in an old barn converted to a wedding hall, not only was the roof too high, the old boards were fairly non-reflective, there were large gaps between the boards and it was pitch dark outside. I tried used the optical wireless P-TTL triggering while holding the flash in my other hand, I couldn't get enough of a bounce to fire the flash that way either. And I wasn't the paid photographer so wanted to stay out of the way as much as possible.



It should be obvious which is before and after.

[geomez]

I really like this idea for a challenge. If I wasn't on a trip away from all my DNG files, I'd love to submit!

[charliezap]

A very interesting challenge to be sure.

The red shouldered hawk landed on the railing outside the kitchen window. I had to shoot through the glass and it was ok but I was more happy with the final rendition that was made by the on board filters in the K5IIs The vignetting was done with PSP 8. That's my "before and after" story.--charliezap

[slowpez]

While we were at a civil war reenactment of the Battle of Aiken, these four ladies came walking out of the woods. There was something about the light on them that made me stop and take their photo. They went on their merry way right after I took the shot. Once downloaded I realized that the lady on the right was in modern dress and the photo wasn't quite what I had imagined. The first shot is the original image, I just changed the format from DNG to Jpeg.
Originally, I planned on keeping the color version after cropping it and tweaking it a bit but it just didn't work somehow. Anyway, it was off to silver effects with it. I did manage to remove the tennis shoe and the purse from the lady on the right and play a bit with her clothing to hopefully minimize the modern dress. I left it deliberately dark to match the mood of wartime.

---

Last edited by slowpez; 07-16-2016 at 10:41 AM.

[tessfully]

Oh these are wonderful submissions! I love this challenge topic Bruce as I love tinkering with my photos. I decided to use my favourite all-time fall image that I worked on for hours. I do apologize as I think I've shared this one every chance I get. As Tim said, when you are working from a RAW file you have so much information to utilize. It is always a surprise what colour and details you can pull out of the shadows, as with Tamia's beautiful water shot.

So here is the RAW file:




And after sitting at the computer and losing 1/2 day of my life...

[Apet-Sure]

This post won't be an official entry for the challenge, because the 'before' image is NOT MINE. I found it online some years ago. It was undoubtedly taken at an airshow. I just couldn't resist showing my idea of changing it to a 1943-ish treatment of the plane coming back from a combat mission with battle damage. Besides converting to black-and-white, I blurred it since I figured a photo taken at the time by a press photographer wouldn't be great quality.

[noelcmn]

That's pretty cool Apet-Sure

[Rimfiredude]

The caption being "Hello Baby". DNG converted and cropped in Silkypix with 50% HDR. Sharpened and cloning on ducks head done in PhotoShop.

[sealonsf]

Before:
[IMG][/IMG]

After:
[IMG][/IMG]

[Bruce Clark]

Great entries so far. I will be closing this challenge in 24 hours. There is still time,

[atupdate]

Here is one of my "Once in a lifetime" shots from 2007.

Raw



Crop - Curve layer for contrast - A little saturation


Tim

[djb47]

Before and after: