[todd]

shall I post those deets

yes indeet!

[BruceBanner]

Ok, time to bring this challenge to a close. Apologies for the longer than usual run time, marred by my own chaos as well as a technical hitch, hopefully we'll be back on track for future challenges!

I want to thank each of you for contributing to this challenge, I found it difficult in post processing and in the end gave up and decided to just chalk it off to experience. I'm very impressed with all your entries, proving that you either all have more patience for this edit and/or simply more skilled than I!
I wouldn't mind if any of you chimed in with a brief description of how you approached the edit.

I shall now go through my thoughts on each entry and announce a 'favourite'.

dcshooter,
Nice and vibrant, I especially like the strong sky. Because I stuffed up with the tree I illuminated it too much and although it looks like you took steps to tone it back it still looks to exposed for the setting (for my personal liking). Overall tho a very good entry, the fact you recently hosted an earlier challenge prolly went against you :P

Glenn5995,
Three fab entries. The first being the most vibrant, similar to dschooters but looks to have more clarity and less softness to the shot, I feel you tackled the high exposure of the tree well here also.
I really like the b&w version as I've not personally seen much astro done in b&w, I feel b&w can really suit edits that are difficult due to bad source material, somehow you can just get away with more in a b&w shot. In all the colour versions the orange clouds really pop out, but in this version this distraction is reduced. Bravo.
And yes the last shot is more natural, spookier.

jcomley,
Another vibrant entry and interestng 'green tree'. The blurr of the long exposure is still visibly noticeable, and a kinda shadow cast behind certain tree features, makes it actually interesting. Well done.

JHfwp,
Both entries are strong, but I prefer the second shot as it has a 'less flashgun' feel about it, you also reduced the clouds to being a distraction rather than a feature, both of which can work but I think I prefer this version more. Excellent work.

todd,
Your closing shot is very similar to our opening shot by dcshooter, but with stronger colours and orange clouds. The tree once again feels soft and over exposed but it's still I think personal choice as to whether it works or not. Excellent work.

If I had to choose a winner (and unfortunately I do) then I think this week I am going to go with Glenn5995's entries, specifically the b&w one which seemed to (I think) really work well for this particular composition and edit. Congrats Glenn!

Glenn, I trust you know what to do for the next challenge, the deets are below;

-------------------
The mediafire website is: mediafire.com
The login name is: ppchallenge@tmphillips.com
The password is: postprocessing
-------------------

Thanks once again everyone for playing, and I look forward to the next challenge.

PS Don't forget to link us all to the next challenge thread, and also anyone whom wants to chime in with a description of how they tackled the edit is always welcomed

[JHfwp]

Thank you for commenting and hosting this challenge, BruceBanner. I've never had any success shooting stars at night, so it was fun to play with these images. I looked at my finished product on another uncalibrated monitor and was worried about how it looked. Time to dig out my monitor's calibration puck!

Congrats Glenn for a job well done!

[BruceBanner]

Thank you for commenting and hosting this challenge, BruceBanner. I've never had any success shooting stars at night, so it was fun to play with these images. I looked at my finished product on another uncalibrated monitor and was worried about how it looked. Time to dig out my monitor's calibration puck!

Congrats Glenn for a job well done!

I have two monitors sitting side by side to me, one is older, the other newer. The new is LED 144hz panel, it provides a cooler temperature and strong contrast, deeper blacks and I do all my editing and viewing of shots on this screen. The other is not the same type of screen tech and the blacks aren't as deep, and generally contrast is weaker and more 'washed out' looking.
It amazes me how dragging the same finished edited pic from one screen to the next and the difference is quite substantial, always looks (to my eye) better on the LED 144hz panel than the older screen. In a way I'm editing shots for those with newer screen tech than what existed 5-6yrs ago. I check on my tablet and phone some of the pics also (on my instagram account) and they look similar to how I edited on the LED 144hz panel, so I'm thinking that's the way to go, but it does go to show how different a pic can look depending upon the editor and consumers monitors for sure!

[JHfwp]

I have two monitors sitting side by side to me, one is older, the other newer. The new is LED 144hz panel, it provides a cooler temperature and strong contrast, deeper blacks and I do all my editing and viewing of shots on this screen. The other is not the same type of screen tech and the blacks aren't as deep, and generally contrast is weaker and more 'washed out' looking.
It amazes me how dragging the same finished edited pic from one screen to the next and the difference is quite substantial, always looks (to my eye) better on the LED 144hz panel than the older screen. In a way I'm editing shots for those with newer screen tech than what existed 5-6yrs ago. I check on my tablet and phone some of the pics also (on my instagram account) and they look similar to how I edited on the LED 144hz panel, so I'm thinking that's the way to go, but it does go to show how different a pic can look depending upon the editor and consumers monitors for sure!

Yeah, the whole color management thing is tough to get a handle on. Just learning the basics (like how to operate the computer, editing program, and camera) is a challenge. And then... just when you think you've got it all figured out... something breaks, or something much better comes along!

There's really no taming anything in this digital era!

[Glenn5995]

Thank you BruceBanner for hosting this challenge and for honoring me with the privilege of hosting the next round. Well done everyone! I will see what I can come up with for the next challenge.

[todd]

The tree once again feels soft and over exposed

I agree. I was just trying to do something different and it wasn't meant to be my only and final run, but things have been hectic here.

Congrats Glenn! I enjoyed all the entries. Thanks for hosting Bruce with some great files for the challenge.

[Glenn5995]

Challenge 230 is open for business:

PP Challenge #230

In response to BruceBanner's request, I will try in the next day or two to post the process I used for these photos.

[Glenn5995]

Sorry I did not get back to this sooner, but it has been a busy week.

I am not a professional and there may well be better ways, but this is what I did with the processing:

The image with the astro tracking seemed to have the start of star trails and I felt the 20 second exposure would work better to keep the stars sharp, so I just used the one image.

1) Sharpening in Lightroom


2) To Photomatix for mild HDR treatment


3) Back to Lightroom for overall noise reduction, sharpening and chromatic aberration removal


4) Indivdual color de-saturation for blue and purple


5) Overall adjustments to contrast, blacks, clarity and saturation


6) Selective adjustment to the sky/stars


7) Selective adjustment to the tree and ground


8) Selective adjustment to the leaves


9) Selective adjustment to the ground/grass


10) Additional selective adjustment to the ground/grass


11) Final color version


12) Converted to B&W using Silver Efex Pro


I hope this makes sense.

[BruceBanner]

Sorry I did not get back to this sooner, but it has been a busy week.

I am not a professional and there may well be better ways, but this is what I did with the processing:

The image with the astro tracking seemed to have the start of star trails and I felt the 20 second exposure would work better to keep the stars sharp, so I just used the one image.

1) Sharpening in Lightroom


2) To Photomatix for mild HDR treatment


3) Back to Lightroom for overall noise reduction, sharpening and chromatic aberration removal


4) Indivdual color de-saturation for blue and purple


5) Overall adjustments to contrast, blacks, clarity and saturation


6) Selective adjustment to the sky/stars


7) Selective adjustment to the tree and ground


8) Selective adjustment to the leaves


9) Selective adjustment to the ground/grass


10) Additional selective adjustment to the ground/grass


11) Final color version


12) Converted to B&W using Silver Efex Pro


I hope this makes sense.

It does, and I will devote proper time to digest, perhaps even trying to recreate what you have done here for myself, perhaps post my results here later further down the line (when time allows). I just wanted to let you know I really really appreciate that level of breakdown, I know those posts take time but they are the most helpful ones to numpties like me

[Glenn5995]

Looking forward to what you come up with.