First some comments for each contestant and entry: NeatKnight – really like your first attempt with the -2 image. This kind of dark approach hadn’t occurred to me before and the way the water looks (so interesting) and interacts with the silhouetted pier is really nice. This edit really makes the blur of the pierdestrians look nice too! Very creative and appealing take. I was going to say that maybe it would be nice to go all the way to mono, but I take it for what it is and say it is unique this way.
#2 tops #1 imho. It retains some of the qualities of the first attempt with the darks and drama, but then we get that wonderful added dimension of color and foreground detail. I also like the subtle enhancement of detail along the side of the pier. You really dodged up the whitewash nicely too, both in foreground and on the other side of the pier… There’s a little bit of haloing/misalignment around the pier legs and a big dust spot, but whatever!
#3 is interesting for the high degree of experimentation involved. It’s neat to see the image like this.
#4 and the final entry for the challenge is very interesting as well in the experimental department, especially what you did with the lights and rails. I was hoping someone would do something unique with the starbursts and here we have it. You’ve shown that you have a lot of processing skills with these versions!
Of your four versions, #1 and #2 are my faves.
markcphoto – very nice edit. It’s clean and colorful and I’m not bothered by too much of any color. It has a polished look with a nice amount of clarity, going all the way out to the end of the pier. I like the crop too.
D1N0 – faded and blue was a cool thing to do! I’m really enjoying that nice white tower and lamps/starbursts. The foreground looks great here especially with those sparkly bits… I really like the crop too! The one thing for me is because of being faded, the smudginess where you removed the rigs is a bit distracting. Also, the dust spot in the water pops out more.
Glenn5995 – You never disappoint with your top notch editing skills! Your first entry has the right touch on everything, and you were the first to remove the dust spot in the water (and I am a dust spot remover type)… You always manage such a nice amount of clarity/detail that looks great and clean.
Honestly I am not really grooving with the second entry. I like some types of painterly edits but this looks more noisy to me than painterly.
dcshooter – I do like your tighter crop. The highlight of your edit for me is the look of the two guys top right. They look so cool! Love the detail there. I also like how you darkened the darks under the pier. You’re the first to do that and it looks great and creates nice contrast. The only distraction I noticed, and it’s minor, is the lamp and sign on the left edge of the frame. I would have cropped or cloned that out…
Rimfiredude – Entry #1 is a nice effort but at least on my monitor there is a little bit of a washed low contrast look to the pier at top right, especially to the underside of the pier. It’s a bit distracting. I think because of your creative work with the colors the dust spot in the water is more distracting too in this one… It’s an interesting take though for the vibrant colors which does create a unique atmospheric quality.
#2 - you toned the colors down for a more natural look and it’s nice. Still thinking that area under the pier top right needed a bit more work.
#3 – nice colorful wider darker version. Obviously takes care of the top right pier area… I like your crops just fine but personally prefer to more foreground.
#4 – takes the colors in the direction of cyan it seems and I like it overall but that top right area of minor distraction is back.
#5 – looks like you increased the tone mapping or something like that for more detail. Still that top right distraction but tamed a little bit more than the other brighter versions…
#6 - artsie as intended and I like it.
#7 – Very unique, creative, colored version! You came back with some foreground and it looks nice! A lot of detail in there! And yay the washed out area top right is not an issue here.
#8 – Is interesting too. Foreground and detail o’plenty. Nice effective of desaturation and/or selective color with the lights. You did a nice job with the whitewash on this one. Also no problem here with the top right area. There is one slightly distracting dust spot in the center of the image between pier legs but oh well…
I think #8 is my fave of all your entries because you brought in more foreground with nice detail especially with the whitewash, and fixed the top right area. Second place of your entries goes to your darker #3 entry. All very nice efforts!
atupdate – nice and ‘straight forward’ indeed. I like the crop and like NeatKnight how you kept the underside of the bridge really dark.
discharged – I like your choice of images to combine and the result in general looks great. An interesting moody quality that is really nice. Your removal of the oil rigs went pretty well, but there are some little signs in there of haloing/pixel-prodding activities in between the pier legs that caught me up a little bit… Really like the look of the foreground here.
Now I am at your second image. I am hard pressed to pick a winner between the two. #1 is moodier which I really like. #2 has it’s own dramatic quality and the foreground is so nice. I think the thing that makes me lean toward #1 is the cleanup work you did. #2 bottom half is brighter so there are spots where you cloned things that are a bit more of a distraction as well. If I could leave the area behind the pier out of the equation, then #2 would take it from me thanks to how nice the front side of the pier looks. That reflection is super nice too in #2. It’s really close between them…
Arizona Dave – You dropped in the first all bw entry and it’s a dandy! You used the full range of histogram to your advantage. The details from top to bottom look great… I especially appreciate the detail in the pier legs. For all the detail that you managed to convey, am a bit surprised you didn’t include to the two men standing at the rails… The foreground and reflections are super tasty here.
Your color entry is nice too and I can see that it is the foundation of your bw entry, but it has some of that washed out look at top right that I complained about with RFD’s entries, and overall the bw entry just kicks it up another notch for me. This is pretty common from my own experience when I use Silver Efex after doing color edits too. The structure filter in particular in there seems to grab more detail than we dare to grab in color and makes it look really good.. Or something like that hahaha… Just comparing the two foregrounds here in the sandy reflections backs up what I am talking about…
quant2325 – Nice to see a number of different takes from you. I spent time enjoying each one. Of the five entries, I think I like #3 the most. A little warmer, right in the zone exposure-wise… Nice detail and color… Not washed out top right like this image has shown a tendency for (as seen in your #4 entry)
AggieDad - #1 and #2 are both very nice posterized treatments! I like the first one of the two a bit more for having the two dudes a little further into the scene and having some water underneath.
#3 I really am drawn to this one and keep coming back. The look of the lamps/lights is probably my fave of all the entries in the challenge. There is quite a bit of haloing/misalignment of the pier legs going on, and a couple distracting dust spots… I wish this version had more foreground (like your #3 and #4).
#4 is a bit less intense than #3 but too bright for me on the bottom side of the pier and the haloing/misalignment takes away a bit.
#5 is nice... It’s similar to #4 in crop and color but less detail push and very minimal non-issue haloing/misalignment.
#6 looks like a whole different approach from the others.. Uncropped and interesting tweaks to the colors, especially with the wild look of the sky. I like it. Really like the shimmering foreground reflections on the water here.
#7 is subtle and interesting. Toned down the color and uncropped but still plenty of detail with no haloing/misalignment… For some reason it drew my eye into the overall reflection of the pier more than the #6. The dust spot on the water on the left distracts a bit.
#8 haha you know me and my like for mirroring/symmetry stuff… Well done! Only knock is that we have double our dust spot pleasure here too…
#9 is a very well done and creative mirroring job too! Wow. I really like how clean looking it is! Removing the water almost altogether creates this added emphasis on the pier and sense of serenity or something. I like it. The only comment I will make is that to go along with that clean tidy sense going on, I think going with the two stationary men leaning on the railing would have suited that more. Not sure though, and it could be countered that having the people in motion instead is more of a contrast.
Flasher – wonderful work on this! It’s not just the mirrored reflection you’ve pulled off brilliantly, but the way you integrated the foreground detail, and the overall edit is very well done. The detail on the side of the pier is especially nice.
hikerwny – I really like what you did here! Very creative and the result is totally different sunset look that is really nice. The water has an interesting drama to it too that benefit from your color tweaks…
Now for the (Subjective, Biased, Subject-to-my-mood-at-the-moment) Contest Results:
Fourth place: Everybody else... I’ve moved a bunch of you in and out of the final three spots... It’s not easy to pick these winners at all!
Third place: Flasher
Second place: Arizona Dave #1
And the winner is…. NeatKnight #2! Way to push and pull and create some drama! Congrats!
Thanks again everyone for your fine entries and looking forward as always to the next round!