First of all, I would like to thank everyone for playing along. I hope you enjoyed playing with all those sliders that the developers put all that energy into creating.
Some wonderful techniques were used here, but as always, I have to chose a winner and it isn’t easy.

geomez: I am not sure what I am looking at here but you made it into an otherworldly universe complete with stars.

Bruce Clark: that pelican should be proud of what you have done for him. He just pops off the screen and the detail is amazing. Surprisingly, his over-the-top stopped before it got to be too much.

atupdate: you took a mundane can of soup and made it into a colorful array of soup. Andy Warhol would be proud.

Hattifnatt: I am glad to see you used all the sliders. She turned out perfectly retaining her lovely smile but getting a gritty street vibe to go with it.

SpecialK: This is a nice shot of this American icon. I like that you added the colorful sky and reduced the haze giving the rock itself more prominence.

Vaskebjorn: A cat peering out of the darkness, what can be more mysterious and you have added more mystery by increasing that dark background.

Barbara Fu: Do zombies ride escalators? If not, I am sure they would feel right at home on this one. This turned out really well.

charliezap: you took cold and made it colder. Painterly, yes, but cold.

Kerrowdown: Brilliant decision to turn day into night. Isn’t that usually done in the reverse? You even added a beam of light that cast its beam on the stair rail and got rid of the sign on the green door. Who knew you had such power.

djb47: the owl mosaic is a great use of PP. How did you manage to get both eyes to look fully out at the viewer? Very clever. I bet this one could keep the viewer occupied for hours just looking at the tiny mosaic bits.

BruceBanner: I like the way you cropped this one, bringing out the beautiful crest on this bird of paradise flower.

Eva: There is so much to explore on the table top. Although your technique brings out the lovely clock and makes its peeling yellow paint look beautiful, I still want to see what else is on the table. Good job.

noelcmn: Ha, someone has turned night into day. Take that KD. Looks like a fairy tale.

dlneubec: what a cute little girl. I have no idea what you did here but it sure worked. Nice job.


Third place: Barbara Fu. I like that you got out of your comfort zone and produce a really interesting image.

Second place: Kerrowdown. Well thought out and well executed image.

First place: dlneubec. I can’t get that little girl’s eyes out of my mind and I can’t figure out how what you did to get the final image.

[atupdate]

The winning image is stunning. Congratulations dlneubec.

Tim

[SpecialK]

A cutie.

[geomez]

Congrats Barbara Fu, Kerrowdown, and dineubec.

Thanks for the really interesting challenge Susan.

BTW, the picture is of a feather cactus.

[dlneubec]

Thanks to the kind comments. I look forward to hosting next weeks challenge!

For years I've had an old version of Paint Shop Pro (version 9). I picked up a free plug-in for it at one point called "Virtual Painter 5", which I have found a lot of fun to play with. This photo had a number of different "painting" effects applied to it to get to the final, but the primary one was a pointillism process. The result, I felt, was much better than the original color shot, which had a very busy and distracting oak cabinet background.

[noelcmn]

Just knew that would be the winner, its awesome, worthy to be hung on the wall dlneubec. Congratulations. And it does not even look like its been processed to the max! Wonderful! Congrats too to Kerrowdown, from whom I must stay away from, as he can turn my day into night and Barbara Fu. Thanks to our host, a real interesting challenge with some wonderful entries.

[djb47]

Congratulations to dineubec, Kerrowdown, and Barbara Fu.

[Kerrowdown]

Brilliant decision to turn day into night

I actually needed that night shot for an assignment... it was a case of needs must.

Who knew you had such power

It's good to know that the old Kerrowdown still has the ability to surprise...

[Kerrowdown]

Congrats

Thank you.

[Kerrowdown]

Congrats too to Kerrowdown, from whom I must stay away from, as he can turn my day into night

Thank you, is that a good thing that you stay away?

There's a bit of an alchemist in us all.

[Kerrowdown]

Congratulations

Thanks.

[BruceBanner]

Thanks, I had fun doing this! Congrats dlneubec

[rod_grant]

Well done all. Congrats to the winners.
This challenge was well out of my league; I am a PP minimalist. Perhaps I should fiddle with some of those slidy things?
And Susan a good challenge (for everyone but me? )

[eva]

Congrats to the winners 1,2,3 and all participants.