Post-Processing Post Processing Challenge #127

Arizona Dave · 11-09-2014, 07:29 PM

Looking good everyone! Just a couple more days left!

astonm · 11-11-2014, 11:49 AM

My stab at it .....

Sage97 · 11-11-2014, 04:14 PM

You guys are amazing at PP.....but how come there is no Godzilla?

atupdate · 11-12-2014, 04:43 AM

Originally posted by Sage97

You guys are amazing at PP.....but how come there is no Godzilla?

Sorry, I've been a bit busy.

Tim

Arizona Dave · 11-12-2014, 06:56 AM

This thread is now closed to new entries.

**todd** · 11-12-2014, 09:29 AM

Originally posted by atupdate

Sorry, I've been a bit busy.

Either make time for Godzilla, or Godzilla will make time for you.

Arizona Dave · 11-12-2014, 08:30 PM

Congratulations! All ten of you made it into the TOP TEN!

So this is the part I wasn't looking forward to... Now I have to chose my favorite.

I enjoyed seeing you guys take my image and put your own spin on it. I chose this image, because night sky shots present a big challenge for processing with a large latitude for artistic interpretation, as we see in your versions. I would bet most of us have little chance to get these clear night skies from such a dark location, and therefore have little experience processing Milky Way shots. I have been following Michael Shainblum's work. His night sky images and processing tutorial have been inspirational for me. You can check out his site as well as the free video tutorials there to see what has influenced my personal tastes.

Since most of us are probably doing a Post-processing Challenge to sharpen our PP skills, I decided to comment on each photo, in the order they were posted. I commented on what I liked about each, as well as what I didn't care for so much. Please keep in mind that my comments are based only on my personal tastes and are meant to be constructive.

Glenn5995 mentioned Star Wars, which is one of the many movies shot at the Trona Pinnacles. I hoped a talented Photoshopper would pick up on this and include some fantastic Star Wars imagery.

Thanks for participating in this round!

slipdm16, I liked the color and exposure level you chose. The foreground is nice and dark, yet retains some nice detail. You corrected the CA well. I like that you made local adjustments to the Milky Way, but I wish the local adjustment brush was feathered more or was less noticeable, especially near the top.

K David, I love the detail and natural color of the foreground, as well as the color of the sky. You showed some skill adding the star trails, but you replaced 80% of my photo! Good thing I love star trails. I assume you shot the stars yourself. Of course, the original shot was facing south and your star trails are rotating around Polaris.

schnitzer79, I would have no idea how to accomplish what you did here. I like how you tried to conceal the mirror by changing the shapes of the rock outlines. Perhaps, rearranging some rocks in the foreground would have helped with the illusion. The mirrored sky is strange to me, and the center appears very purplish, even in the foreground. Nice detail everywhere.

todd, You managed to pull tons of detail from the foreground, but this seems to at the expense of extra noise.. The colors are unnatural to my taste. (I loved your mirrored entry in the last round.)

gor80, I like the exposure level and colors, with the exception of the added pink hues. Maybe too much sharpening.

D1N0, The Milky Way in the Milky Way is certainly worth a laugh. I would have no idea how to do this sort of Photoshop thing, but this one appears well-executed. The way you processed the stars here was my favorite. The foreground was also well done. I wish you had corrected the CA fringing that is visible in the stars and especially the top right edge of the horizon.

Glenn5995, You managed to show great detail in the Milky Way without a bunch of added noise. You also kept the tones very even, which worked to keep the sky from getting too bright at the horizon. However; the even tones made the sky and foreground appear a little flat. I've seen you process your own Milky Way shots very much to my liking, but this one has really got the blues. I've been searching all week! Would someone tell me where to find those two characters?

LarsW, Thanks for sticking me with this task. Nice foreground and detail throughout. You corrected all of the CAs. I wish the sky didn't get so light at the bottom.

discharged, Overall I really liked your version. I love how the sky fades to black at the top and the detail in the Milky Way. At this size, its hard to tell, but I wish you had corrected the CA. Your crop makes sense.

astonm, I liked the color balance you chose and the excellent detail in the Milky Way. On my monitors, the lower half seems a little bright. I don't understand your crop as you chose eliminate a good portion of the foreground and a section of the well-defined southern section of the Milky Way, which is really the subject of the image. Good job otherwise.

3rd Place: K David - Congratulations... but you win nothing.

2nd Place: D1N0 - Congratulations... You almost had to judge the next round!

1st Place: discharged - Yay!!! You win the honor of hosting the next round and the unenviable task of judging your peers.

Great job!

Originally posted by discharged

Here is my entry. I wanted to bring this closer to what you might have actually seen,

Lightroom:
1. I lowered the color temperature to about 3k
2. I added some contrast.
3. bumped up the clarity
4. I tried to remove as much of the light pollution as possible because after these steps it was no longer looking natural.
5. At this point I was satisfied with the sky, but all detail in the stone was lost.
6. exported this to photoshop

---
7. remade the enitre image to give a true representation of the stone and what might have been seen by the naked eye by:
8. lowered the color temperature to about 3k
9. got a bit more highlighting in the picture and deepened the shadows.
10. desaturated it alot
11. exported to photoshop
----
12. added the new picture as a layer on the first one.
13. got to work with the erasor on the sky and removed all of it from the second layer
14. done.
Attachment 244295

**todd** · 11-12-2014, 10:06 PM

congrats winners! and thanks Dave for sharing the image and thoughts about all our interpretations!

Originally posted by D1N0

Candy land

Special congrats for the coveted 2nd place!

Originally posted by Arizona Dave

todd, You managed to pull tons of detail from the foreground, but this seems to at the expense of extra noise.. The colors are unnatural to my taste. (I loved your mirrored entry in the last round.)

Thanks for the feedback. I wasn't surprised that you didn't quite like my rendition lol... I had a tamed version before I did this one, but really wanted something more 'dramatic' and this was what happened... Glad you enjoyed my entry from the last round... I like to use these challenges as opportunity to push and/or ignore my usual boundaries...

See y'all next round!

K David · 11-12-2014, 10:38 PM - **2 Likes**

Third place is pretty great for my first time!

I didn't, however, add anything to the image. So what I did was mask out all the stars in your photo and then manually remove some of the Milky Way that was in the mask. I had to refine the mask a bit, but then I copied the mask as a new layer, picked a star I could re-find easily, and rotated the layer 0.5 degrees. Then I did it again, set the rotational axis on the new layer to the same star and repeated. After a few layers I was able to flatten them, make a copy and rotate ti about 2 degrees. In all, it's either 40 or 80 (I forget which) copies of the original stars rotated to create trails. I'ts not something I would ever do in creating a new star trails image, but I wanted to see if it could be done as a technique to remove the dot effect that happens with stars rotating far from the central axis, and it worked!

**Glenn5995** · 11-12-2014, 10:50 PM

Congratulations discharged! Looking forward to the next round.

D1N0 · 11-13-2014, 03:24 AM

close call, my favourite spot

Congrats discharged. Thanks for judging and the challenging pic Arizona Dave!

discharged · 11-13-2014, 05:45 AM

Thanks for choosing my entry! this competition was really a challenge, with many really good entries!

I will select a picture and start a new competition once I am home from work.

LarsW · 11-13-2014, 11:59 AM

Good work with the challenge, Arizona Dave, and good choice of winner!

Congrats to discharged!

11-09-2014, 07:29 PM	#16
Arizona Dave Pentaxian Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Phoenix, Arizona Posts: 440 Original Poster	Get Your Entries In! Looking good everyone! Just a couple more days left!

11-11-2014, 11:49 AM	#17
astonm Pentaxian Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Puyallup / Seattle, Washington State Photos: Gallery Posts: 372	My stab at it ..... Last edited by astonm; 03-25-2015 at 10:51 PM.

11-12-2014, 08:30 PM	#22
Arizona Dave Pentaxian Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Phoenix, Arizona Posts: 440 Original Poster	Post-Processing Challenge #127 Winner Congratulations! All ten of you made it into the TOP TEN! So this is the part I wasn't looking forward to... Now I have to chose my favorite. I enjoyed seeing you guys take my image and put your own spin on it. I chose this image, because night sky shots present a big challenge for processing with a large latitude for artistic interpretation, as we see in your versions. I would bet most of us have little chance to get these clear night skies from such a dark location, and therefore have little experience processing Milky Way shots. I have been following Michael Shainblum's work. His night sky images and processing tutorial have been inspirational for me. You can check out his site as well as the free video tutorials there to see what has influenced my personal tastes. Since most of us are probably doing a Post-processing Challenge to sharpen our PP skills, I decided to comment on each photo, in the order they were posted. I commented on what I liked about each, as well as what I didn't care for so much. Please keep in mind that my comments are based only on my personal tastes and are meant to be constructive. Glenn5995 mentioned Star Wars, which is one of the many movies shot at the Trona Pinnacles. I hoped a talented Photoshopper would pick up on this and include some fantastic Star Wars imagery. Thanks for participating in this round! slipdm16, I liked the color and exposure level you chose. The foreground is nice and dark, yet retains some nice detail. You corrected the CA well. I like that you made local adjustments to the Milky Way, but I wish the local adjustment brush was feathered more or was less noticeable, especially near the top. K David, I love the detail and natural color of the foreground, as well as the color of the sky. You showed some skill adding the star trails, but you replaced 80% of my photo! Good thing I love star trails. I assume you shot the stars yourself. Of course, the original shot was facing south and your star trails are rotating around Polaris. schnitzer79, I would have no idea how to accomplish what you did here. I like how you tried to conceal the mirror by changing the shapes of the rock outlines. Perhaps, rearranging some rocks in the foreground would have helped with the illusion. The mirrored sky is strange to me, and the center appears very purplish, even in the foreground. Nice detail everywhere. todd, You managed to pull tons of detail from the foreground, but this seems to at the expense of extra noise.. The colors are unnatural to my taste. (I loved your mirrored entry in the last round.) gor80, I like the exposure level and colors, with the exception of the added pink hues. Maybe too much sharpening. D1N0, The Milky Way in the Milky Way is certainly worth a laugh. I would have no idea how to do this sort of Photoshop thing, but this one appears well-executed. The way you processed the stars here was my favorite. The foreground was also well done. I wish you had corrected the CA fringing that is visible in the stars and especially the top right edge of the horizon. Glenn5995, You managed to show great detail in the Milky Way without a bunch of added noise. You also kept the tones very even, which worked to keep the sky from getting too bright at the horizon. However; the even tones made the sky and foreground appear a little flat. I've seen you process your own Milky Way shots very much to my liking, but this one has really got the blues. I've been searching all week! Would someone tell me where to find those two characters? LarsW, Thanks for sticking me with this task. Nice foreground and detail throughout. You corrected all of the CAs. I wish the sky didn't get so light at the bottom. discharged, Overall I really liked your version. I love how the sky fades to black at the top and the detail in the Milky Way. At this size, its hard to tell, but I wish you had corrected the CA. Your crop makes sense. astonm, I liked the color balance you chose and the excellent detail in the Milky Way. On my monitors, the lower half seems a little bright. I don't understand your crop as you chose eliminate a good portion of the foreground and a section of the well-defined southern section of the Milky Way, which is really the subject of the image. Good job otherwise. 3rd Place: K David - Congratulations... but you win nothing. 2nd Place: D1N0 - Congratulations... You almost had to judge the next round! 1st Place: discharged - Yay!!! You win the honor of hosting the next round and the unenviable task of judging your peers. Great job! Originally posted by discharged Here is my entry. I wanted to bring this closer to what you might have actually seen, Lightroom: 1. I lowered the color temperature to about 3k 2. I added some contrast. 3. bumped up the clarity 4. I tried to remove as much of the light pollution as possible because after these steps it was no longer looking natural. 5. At this point I was satisfied with the sky, but all detail in the stone was lost. 6. exported this to photoshop --- 7. remade the enitre image to give a true representation of the stone and what might have been seen by the naked eye by: 8. lowered the color temperature to about 3k 9. got a bit more highlighting in the picture and deepened the shadows. 10. desaturated it alot 11. exported to photoshop ---- 12. added the new picture as a layer on the first one. 13. got to work with the erasor on the sky and removed all of it from the second layer 14. done. Attachment 244295

11-12-2014, 10:06 PM	#23
todd Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Arizona Photos: Gallery Posts: 6,791	congrats winners! and thanks Dave for sharing the image and thoughts about all our interpretations! Originally posted by D1N0 Candy land Special congrats for the coveted 2nd place! Originally posted by Arizona Dave todd, You managed to pull tons of detail from the foreground, but this seems to at the expense of extra noise.. The colors are unnatural to my taste. (I loved your mirrored entry in the last round.) Thanks for the feedback. I wasn't surprised that you didn't quite like my rendition lol... I had a tamed version before I did this one, but really wanted something more 'dramatic' and this was what happened... Glad you enjoyed my entry from the last round... I like to use these challenges as opportunity to push and/or ignore my usual boundaries... See y'all next round! Last edited by todd; 11-12-2014 at 10:12 PM.

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11-11-2014, 04:14 PM	#18
Sage97 Pentaxian Join Date: Apr 2012 Photos: Albums Posts: 3,238	You guys are amazing at PP.....but how come there is no Godzilla?

11-12-2014, 04:43 AM	#19
atupdate Pentaxian Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Dayton, OH Photos: Gallery Posts: 4,723	Originally posted by Sage97 You guys are amazing at PP.....but how come there is no Godzilla? Sorry, I've been a bit busy. Tim

11-12-2014, 06:56 AM	#20
Arizona Dave Pentaxian Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Phoenix, Arizona Posts: 440 Original Poster	This thread is now closed to new entries.

11-12-2014, 09:29 AM	#21
todd Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Arizona Photos: Gallery Posts: 6,791	Originally posted by atupdate Sorry, I've been a bit busy. Either make time for Godzilla, or Godzilla will make time for you.

11-12-2014, 10:38 PM - 2 Likes	#24
K David Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Colorado Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,437	Third place is pretty great for my first time! I didn't, however, add anything to the image. So what I did was mask out all the stars in your photo and then manually remove some of the Milky Way that was in the mask. I had to refine the mask a bit, but then I copied the mask as a new layer, picked a star I could re-find easily, and rotated the layer 0.5 degrees. Then I did it again, set the rotational axis on the new layer to the same star and repeated. After a few layers I was able to flatten them, make a copy and rotate ti about 2 degrees. In all, it's either 40 or 80 (I forget which) copies of the original stars rotated to create trails. I'ts not something I would ever do in creating a new star trails image, but I wanted to see if it could be done as a technique to remove the dot effect that happens with stars rotating far from the central axis, and it worked!

11-12-2014, 10:50 PM	#25
Glenn5995 Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 835	Congratulations discharged! Looking forward to the next round.

11-13-2014, 03:24 AM	#26
D1N0 Pentaxian Join Date: May 2012 Location: --- Photos: Gallery Posts: 6,802	close call, my favourite spot Congrats discharged. Thanks for judging and the challenging pic Arizona Dave!

11-13-2014, 05:45 AM	#27
discharged Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: viking country Photos: Albums Posts: 276	Thanks for choosing my entry! this competition was really a challenge, with many really good entries! I will select a picture and start a new competition once I am home from work.

11-13-2014, 11:59 AM	#28
LarsW Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Sweden Posts: 251	Good work with the challenge, Arizona Dave, and good choice of winner! Congrats to discharged!

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