[astonm]

Found a little time to play... missing those mountains! Beautiful pic (as ususal )

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Last edited by astonm; 07-23-2020 at 09:52 AM.

[noelcmn]

[todd]

mariwalt - quite a lift and done well overall. some uneven dodge/burn on the second row peaks it seems that distracts a little bit on my screen. also some oversharpening in places it seems.
graeme83 - well you know i'm a huge fan of your processing (and photography, of course) so both your entries were savory treats. so creative and tasteful. the only nitpick is with your second entry, same reason as others where id like the blown sky blended in a bit more or utilized. you're pretty much there and your treatment is so strong that I wouldn't have otherwise thought anything of it. but here it's being used as a nitpicking tool to grade everyone, so I'm letting it distract me I think.. for that reason I've decided to give your GOT version the nod from the two.
lidy - really like your framing in #1 and the bw is really nice. blending the blown sky more would have been an improvement for this challenge.
savoche - both versions nice. color takes the win for me from the two, for the sky impact. you did well with detail preservation considering how much you lifted the exposure.
rpjallan - welcome to the challenge and thanks for playing. As you said subtle, but tasteful differences here and all working together in your version. don't know if intentional but the third row background valley and hill look a little hazy/washed, so slightly distracting.
Tas - wonderful take.. some of your painting strokes over the blowouts are visible, but didn't even notice them when I first saw your entry. i don't mind at all because I get the intent and you transformed this into such a nice golden mood here while preserving detail in the foreground in a way that I appreciate. Also like how your cooler tones in the foreground balance and contrast with the warm sky and have a subtle orange/blue thing going on. (I'm sure there's a term for it, haha. The crossprocessing filter in Nik-CFX is what it reminds me of...)
bertwert - great idea going pano and well done. if you were to see my version, you'd know i appreciate the dark red sky you went with...
ehrwien - welcome to the challenge and thanks for playing. a strong entry for the wonderful sky treatment and dark, detailed peaks. a little bit of haloing atop the second row peaks that is slightly distracting. i know it's not really haloing but result of toning down the haziness of the background so it looks like haloing. it's a nitpick/personal pref, but also looking for the blown highlights to be manipulated a bit more. you were close, but just wishing for a little bit more so it blends in even more here.
JHfwp - you've got flare! and you got me with the flare. i flare for flare. is that flare to say? it really adds an extra punch to your already wonderful deep/saturated tonal treatment of the image that sings sunrise glory.
tuggie76 - Hi Ho! Fun Extreme-sports-Tonto take. You lifted it well but I'm a detail fiend, so the degree of detail loss is a little tough for me, kimosabe.
jmacias - a unique crop and it works. i like the natural tonal take too that keeps a lot of detail.
astonm - glad you stopped in! a nice and bold treatment that overall I enjoy. like how you handle the blownout sky bits. find some of d&b to be a little uneven thus distracting. For the second row it works so mainly in the third row peak and valley. it's a nitpick because there is so much overall impact that it's easily ignored.
noelcmn - interesting bold ultra-saturated take on the top one. appreciate how you tried to bring the sky clouds/colors further over to the left. the bottom version it gets pretty distracting though only the peak edge.

Y'all made it tough for me!. Glad Glenn wasn't here... Just kidding! Actually quite the contrary, since I stopped in every day hoping to find his entry.

Third place = graeme83 (GOT entry.... Note: Would've had you higher but one unspoken grading criteria was foreground detail preservation. That's the strength of your entry on my pad, since you made it to podium without it...Can't linger here too long though or I'll end up ignoring the highlights "issue" and giving you the win for the second entry where I love how you managed the foreground details, etc.)
Second place = Tas
First place = JHfwp! Congrats!

[JHfwp]

Oh wow, I didn't expect this! There were so many unique and deserving entries, but I'm glad you liked my take. I certainly enjoyed working on this beauty and experimenting/learning. Thank you for sharing it and taking the time to comment. I mean it, too, that's an awesome sunrise and a great composition.

The bar has been set super high lately with these challenge photos... I know right now I won't be able to match the quality or the scenery, but hopefully I can at least find one to challenge you folks. Check back in a bit and I'll see what I can come up with.

[savoche]

Congrats to JHfwp for a super job! And thanks to todd for hosting with a wonderful challenge and for the detailed feedback. It's also nice to see this many entries - always fun to see all the different ideas cropping up in these challenges

[lidy]

Congrats to JHfwp, thanks to all the participants (I love seeing all the different versions), and of course thanks to todd for a terrific picture and extensive feedback.

As regards my own version(s): funnily enough I don't mind a sunrise/sunset with a small area of blown-out sky - it somehow seems a natural thing to me, illustrating even better the fierce heat coming from the sun. I appreciate hearing your view though!

[ehrwien]

a little bit of haloing atop the second row peaks that is slightly distracting. i know it's not really haloing but result of toning down the haziness of the background so it looks like haloing.

Yeah I know exactly what you mean and I did try to tackle that with the Local Adjustments Tool in DxO PhotoLab, but I couldn't get just the halo/haze down, so in the end I tuned down the whole mountain a little and a bit along the peaks to the left. I shortly contemplated doing two different edits, one for the sky and one for the rest, and combining them in GIMP, which would have been the way to go in the end, I guess.

it's a nitpick/personal pref, but also looking for the blown highlights to be manipulated a bit more.

When I did it, I thought it looked better with a bit of the highlights blown out, but when I now look at the sky in the winning image by @JHfwp I must say it looks better this way.

Thanks for the comments and great picture!

[graeme83]

A worthy winner there for sure, the flare really does add something special to the image. Some great entries in this one so no easy task to judge.

Appreciate that you wanted more foreground detail, and in fact I went and cropped most of it away, I think you know by now I am not afraid to let things go black. Had fun with that one.

Also interesting that you went GOT, that lonely peak strongly reminded me of another well known dragon tale. I had thoughts of including an Eagle swooping down from the foreground but couldn't find a suitable pic to make it work.


On a personal note when I first looked at the image it was the mid ground hazy area that really drew me in, lots of work went in to that on the colour version and the haloing issue that you mentioned on a few of the others was a tricky one to avoid.

Thanks for providing a superb photo to work on and the thoughtful judging exercise.

[todd]

Congrats to JHfwp, thanks to all the participants (I love seeing all the different versions), and of course thanks to todd for a terrific picture and extensive feedback.

As regards my own version(s): funnily enough I don't mind a sunrise/sunset with a small area of blown-out sky - it somehow seems a natural thing to me, illustrating even better the fierce heat coming from the sun. I appreciate hearing your view though!

I don't necessarily mind it, but it's just something I decided to make a criteria to help me with judging and think it's depends on each shot/edit and personal taste. For me with your versions, there was something about it, maybe the crop, where I felt like my eyes were being led to the blown area making it the subject, so it just seemed like a bit much, but obviously I was tuned in to them anyway, so maybe if I'd seen these versions independtly I wouldn't have thought anything of it.

Just went back and looked at my take on this shot. This was a quick pass as I was processing about twenty shots from that morning hike at the same sitting, including a huge stitch... Probably would have done it differently if I was in the challenge.

[noelcmn]

Congrats to the winners- JHfwp, Tas and Greame83. And a hearty thanks to Todd for a wonderful image to play with and of course the judging exercise.

[JHfwp]

Thanks again, Todd. And thanks for the comments everyone.

The next one can be found here.