Post processing Challenge May 18, 2019

"Another weekly challenge.

If, anyone else would like to post next week please give it a go, upload a High resolution jpeg. Just indicate your intentions by Thursday or early Friday.

Remember there are no rules you can do what you wish in your interpretation, please can you give information of the steps taken and software used to add interest.

It is not meant as a competition just a bit of fun." (Gerald Cafferty)

I'll be on the road tomorrow touristing to Minas, and since we had no images volunteered yet, I will take the leap. Have fun.

Gotta say this about Uruguayans, they have very long fishing poles.

Punta Colorada, thanks for posting. Here's my sepia-ish version.

I like the photo a lot, and I couldn’t resist the challenge. The first decision was whether to completely blow out the surf or to tone it down and bring out the detail. I tried both, and though the first option was decidedly dramatic, I liked the second better. So, the process (almost all in Lightroom):

1. Crop to emphasize the horizontals and to isolate the figure
   
2. Basic panel (this was to deal with the non-ocean parts): shadows -29, clarity +51, dehaze +23, whites +47, highlights -92, contrast +13
   
3. I added a brush stroke to deal with the foreground: increased clarity, sharpness, shadows, and contrast
   
4. Now, the ocean: another strongly feathered adjustment brush, with reduced exposure, highlights, and temperature, and increased whites (very slightly—to counteract the reduced exposure over part of the histogram), clarity, dehaze, and saturation
   
5. I then cleaned up the ocean adjustment from the edge along the beach by using an auto-masked erase brush
   
6. I sharpened slightly with a high radius and low amount
   

One last thing bugged me a lot more than it should have. I’d worked the crop to avoid any distracting high-contrast moments along the top and bottom edges of the frame, and I couldn’t crop it any taller or I’d have to clone some of those reintroduced moments out. I also didn’t want to lose anything on the right or left edges. That left me with an almost-but-not-quite-square format. So as a final step, I popped it into Photoshop and stretched the whole frame sideways ever-so-slightly (well, 3.3% if you must know) and breathed a sigh of relief as the image became square. [For some reason the site wouldn't let me upload a 1M file, so I had to reduce resolution--hence the unexpected reduction in sharpness here]

Nice image. I cropped, adjusted levels, employed the "dark Contrast" filter in NIK ColorEfex (the first time that I have played with this), sharpened the foreground rocks and fisherman, adjusted saturation, and finally added a small amount of vignetting.

Lately I've found that I like the look of certain pics that I open in ACR and reduce the clarity on, so I wanted to try that with this one, and liked it as well. Just seems to give the shots a kind of 'dreamy' feel to me. Anyway, I reduced clarity to -82 (that's just where I liked it by eye), then did an 'auto smart fix' in PS Elements just to see how few adjustments I could do and still like the shot. Obviously cropped as well.

Punta, your photo library is a huge source of riches which you share with us weekly! When I saw the contrast in the original version you posted, I knew immediately I was going to prepare mine in b&w. First, in PSE15, I adjust the tacitly with levels. Then, I used Silver Efex for the conversion to b&w. Then, back to PSE for additional tonal adjustments in levels. Finally, used Output Sharpener for sharpening.

Processed with DxO PhotoLab 2

ClearView at 25

MicroContrast at 24

Applied RGB S-curve

Cropped 5:4

Warmed Colors

Raised Shadows 18

Lowered Highlights -24

I made the same kind of crop as others have to focus more on the man. Not too many adjustments:

- a bit of sharpening (HPF)

- brightening the man

- darkening the sea and adding a bit more contrast

When I first saw the photo, I wondered whether the man might be wearing a tartan kilt. So in the 2nd version, I've given him one,:)

#2: PSE15: changed aspect ratio to landscape, levels for tonal adjustments. Color Efex for detail extractor. PSE: dodge tool to lighten area of person fishing, wide sharp filter on artistic menu.

Very nice image. All work in gimp.

This is how it looks some days as the haze washes in from the ocean. I just used LR and a local adjustment brush to add haze using dehaze. .

This is what it might look like hanging Castillo Piriá. I used LR, PS and On1PhotoRaw

When I first saw the photo, I wondered whether the man might be wearing a tartan kilt. So in the 2nd version, I've given him one

I love it, Mike. And then I couldn't resist taking the logical next step:

I love it, Mike. And then I couldn't resist taking the logical next step:

[ATTACH=full]1296090[/ATTACH]

Isn't Nesssie far from home?!?

@Leslie Reid : Haha, I love this 'Loch Ness" version! You wouldn't believe this coincidence but I'm currently reading an old Sci-fi novel by Philip Dick called 'Voices from the Street'. The first chapter describes creatures (from very long ago) that are very much like the 'Loch Ness creature' in your photo! Lots of other things happen in the novel (which I'm only halfway through) but I'm pretty sure that the 'creatures' will re-appear eventually.

Great addition!

Mike

I love it, Mike. And then I couldn't resist taking the logical next step:

[ATTACH=full]1296090[/ATTACH]

What a beautiful photo.. Some curves/channels play.