Challenge! Digital Darkroom Derby #101 - winner announced

[Dinobe]

Start Date

Feb 24, 2023

End Date

Mar 1, 2023

This is Digital Darkroom Derby #101, a digital image editing/processing challenge.

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This image was shot back in april 2022 in Heuvelland, West-Flanders, Belgium
An wonderful hilly area where World War I is still visible, bomb craters which turned in to pools, trenches, graveyards ...

JPG and RAW can be found here

Please read the rules here. Short version: Host provides the challenge image and selects the winner, who then becomes the next host.

 

[Zeus1]

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[griffljg]

Entry #1:

Imported into Capture One Pro 23. Wound back Exposure and Brightness and fiddled around with Highlight and Shadow recovery. Then warmed up the White Balance slightly. Cropped to 16:9.

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[griffljg]

Entry #2:

As for Entry #1, but cropped to the 65:24 / XPAN aspect ratio.

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[RobD]

#1. ACR & PS

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[Peano]

Not competing, just experimenting with this idyllic scene.

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[bdbits]

Pulled into Capture One, cropped to 5x7, slight white balance adjustment, pulled down exposure and dehazed, then increased saturation (perhaps too much vs reality). Masked sky to recover details. Tweaked overall curve a tiny bit and added the slightest vignette.

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[betamax]

Capture 1, colour tweaks.

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[betamax]

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[Stiga]

#1 Luminar. A toughie - difficult to remove flatness

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[BosseBe]

DxO PL6
Entry #1:

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[BosseBe]

B&W DxO Filmpack 6, Rollei Ortho 25 emulation and Orange filter.
Entry #2:

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[Zeus1]

Entry #2

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[RobD]

#2. PS

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[Stiga]

#2 Luminar again but kept original sky and cropped it a bit

 

[kae1]

Entry #1 DXO PL5 then Elements and DeNoise

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[kae1]

Entry #2

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[Dinobe]

I've been very busy the last couple of days, not been very able to follow on this challenges.
I'll close this challenge at 20:00 CET and try to judge tonight.

So couple of hours left to participate...

 

[Dinobe]

I've closed the challenge.
I'll start the judging, results soon....

 

[Dinobe]

What attracted me to this scene was what looks like a nice and idyllic scene, but in reality that pool is an old bomb crater.
The images I took that day look very flat and hazy. I don't really now why or what caused it, humidity in the air?
So every attempt to give the scene more depth and contrast is highly appreciated

Judging this is very difficult and very personal and I would like to thank everybody who participated. I also don't have much time these days. So judging will be quick and personal.

The results:

In 3rd place: @griffljg #1 - very nice, natural processing, I love the details in the leaves, horses, flowers, I'm not sure if the wide crop works... I've been struggling with it myself.
In 2nd place: @RobD #2 - Very nice job at replacing the clouds, also the reflecting in the pool is nicely done. Could have been a touch brighter, what I preferred in your #1, but I went #2
In 1ste place: @betamax #1 - really nice processing, the image looks natural, good details, but certainly has a lot of depth. Probably caused by the brightened tree line in the back. I would have cropped the post in the left lower corner

@Peano - I think you should really enter the competition - nice depth in the scene, clouds, ...

Over to you @betamax