[Broadside]

I am grateful to cg57 for setting last weeks challenge, and for selecting me as the winner.

Welcome, now, to this week's contest: Post-Processing Challenge #408

I'm new to this type of competition and, having looked at the past few threads, the subjects could broadly be described as 'landscape'. I hope I'm not breeching any unwritten rules by submitting a flower pic. It's nothing exceptional, but I feel it has the potential for a couple of different treatments.

DNG image download here: MediaFire - File sharing and storage made simple

The contest will run until Sunday 20th March 2022 8 p.m. GMT

Best of luck, and do try to have fun.

For the next host:
The mediafire website is: mediafire.com
The login name is: ppchallenge@tmphillips.com
The password is: postprocessing

ETA: They're gladioli by the way.

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Last edited by Broadside; 03-14-2022 at 03:48 AM. Reason: Remembered plant name

[cg57]

Tried a retro look. Square crop and a negative type frame.

[noelcmn]

I thought that this deserved a bit of High Key treatment

[Waffles]

A black and white

Attached Images

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[Kerrowdown]

Late in the day...

[rpjallan]

Ok, here's mine. Getting in a bit earlier this week. I haven't changed this much because I like the general composition and the colours of the flowers. Cropped out the vase & removed the distracting shadows...

[tuggie76]

The poor flower needed some company.

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Last edited by tuggie76; 03-26-2022 at 03:54 PM.

[newmikey]

I went for GMIC with this one. Its watercolour filter is neat. But as this really was just running some standard settings I do not want to have this considered for competition. I just thought the result was cool enough to be worth sharing. For some reason, this kind of subject matter seems to suit this particular filter.

GMIC settings: fx_dreamy_watercolour 0,0.3,40,60,0,1,50,0,10,2,1,1,0.5,10,0,0,7,0.5,3,1,1,1,1,1,11,1,25,5,1,10,1,0,0,1,0.5,0,8,1,0,128,128,128,0.5,1,8,0.2,1,1,0,27,0.75,0,1,20,40,40,1,2,1.25,0,2,1,27,1

[Broadside]

Just under 24 hours remaining.

[jmacias]

I was experimenting with it and decided to keep the black background.

[Broadside]

Competition closed - Judging in progress

ETA:
cg57 - the fake frame works fine, and the silvery-blue tones are sympathetic to the subject. Needed one more fake element in the bottom left to counteract the empty space.

noelcmn (General comment) - I don't know which tool you used to separate the fore-ground from the back-, but it's worked on some edges (eg. orange flower in lower left) while making staircases of others (eg. green stem emerging from vase). Several pixels of feathering when making the selection might help.

(Colour) - I'm not convinced by the colour shift from peachy to pink.

(B&W) - Split on the diagonal, the lower left two-thirds are great, particularly the texture of the pale flowers. Upper-right parts are dark and don't show as much detail or contrast between the green and the orange - possibly a different digital colour filter would give a better result.

Waffles - compared against noelcmn's entry, I like that there's detail visible in the orange flowers on the left and right, but, as mentioned above, there's not as much diffrentiation between the orange and green as I'd have hoped. I'd have wished for a bit more texture in the pale flowers too.

Kerrowdown - in contrast to cg57, the addition of space on both sides doesn't give the feeling that there's an empty spot. I think the darkest shadows from the plant (the stem as it emerges from the vase, and the three flowers on the right) need lightening.

rpjallan - light and bright; excellent job on cutting out the foreground.

tuggie76 - singular take. I don't think over-saturated red works, but the fuchsia colour (upper-centre left) is interesting.

newmikey - submission not for consideration (I hope I read that right).

jmacias - the most eye-catching entry. A tad too bold for my walls, and the graphic take on something as delicate as flowers is mildly unsettling. Would do well as an Agatha Christie book-cover.

My thanks to all contestants.


The texture in the petals takes it: the winner is noelcmn's black and white entry.


ETFA: PM sent.

[cg57]

Competition closed - Judging in progress

ETA:
cg57 - the fake frame works fine, and the silvery-blue tones are sympathetic to the subject. Needed one more fake element in the bottom left to counteract the empty space.

noelcmn (General comment) - I don't know which tool you used to separate the fore-ground from the back-, but it's worked on some edges (eg. orange flower in lower left) while making staircases of others (eg. green stem emerging from vase). Several pixels of feathering when making the selection might help.

(Colour) - I'm not convinced by the colour shift from peachy to pink.

(B&W) - Split on the diagonal, the lower left two-thirds are great, particularly the texture of the pale flowers. Upper-right parts are dark and don't show as much detail or contrast between the green and the orange - possibly a different digital colour filter would give a better result.

Waffles - compared against noelcmn's entry, I like that there's detail visible in the orange flowers on the left and right, but, as mentioned above, there's not as much diffrentiation between the orange and green as I'd have hoped. I'd have wished for a bit more texture in the pale flowers too.

Kerrowdown - in contrast to cg57, the addition of space on both sides doesn't give the feeling that there's an empty spot. I think the darkest shadows from the plant (the stem as it emerges from the vase, and the three flowers on the right) need lightening.

rpjallan - light and bright; excellent job on cutting out the foreground.

tuggie76 - singular take. I don't think over-saturated red works, but the fuchsia colour (upper-centre left) is interesting.

newmikey - submission not for consideration (I hope I read that right).

jmacias - the most eye-catching entry. A tad too bold for my walls, and the graphic take on something as delicate as flowers is mildly unsettling. Would do well as an Agatha Christie book-cover.

My thanks to all contestants.


The texture in the petals takes it: the winner is noelcmn's black and white entry.


ETFA: PM sent.

Thanks Broadside for running and judging ppc #408. Congrats to noelcmn!

[newmikey]

newmikey - submission not for consideration (I hope I read that right).

Absolutely correct! But I wouldn't mind hearing what you thought of it - no pressure though!

[noelcmn]

noelcmn (General comment) - I don't know which tool you used to separate the fore-ground from the back-, but it's worked on some edges (eg. orange flower in lower left) while making staircases of others (eg. green stem emerging from vase). Several pixels of feathering when making the selection might help.

(Colour) - I'm not convinced by the colour shift from peachy to pink.

(B&W) - Split on the diagonal, the lower left two-thirds are great, particularly the texture of the pale flowers. Upper-right parts are dark and don't show as much detail or contrast between the green and the orange - possibly a different digital colour filter would give a better result.

I use a combination of Photoscape and Gimp. On these I used the mixer brush tool in Photoscape, (called Smudge tool in Gimp) and Spot healing tool. The black background is then done in Gimp, usually enlarged to 800% so I can see the color pixels to fill in the balck color. Which will explain some of the deficiencies .
Thanks for the win, the new challenge is up here: Post-Processing Challenge #408 - PentaxForums.com

[Broadside]

Absolutely correct! But I wouldn't mind hearing what you thought of it - no pressure though!

Sorry for the delay, my internet service was down on Monday and Tuesday - it's just as well the contest ended before that.

Adding brown to the beige background works. Adding orange and pink echoes works in some parts and not in others - it's fine when on a level with the plant, but in the bottom left and top right corners it draws the eye away (and the bottom right as well, but that might be because the pink smudge meets the edge - compare with the orange smudge in upper left).

On balance, I'm negative on the outlines. It enhances the green stems and flowers seen at half profile (notably upper left of centre), but unfortunately detracts from the two pale pink flowers seen almost square on.