Darkroom Challenge Digital Darkroom Derby #221 (closed, results posted)

WhidbeyLVR

WhidbeyLVR

Hall of Famer
Supporter
Location
Whidbey Island
Name
Lyle
Start Date
Aug 18, 2024
End Date
Aug 22, 2024
This is Digital Darkroom Derby #221, a digital image editing/processing challenge.

These challenges are open to everyone. If you have any interest in practicing or improving your image editing and post-processing skills, please feel free to join in!

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

DDD221-web.jpg


Cloudy London sunset from Sky Garden. Yes, there are slight reflections in the window. The more clarity you apply, the worse they are likely to get. Enjoy!

The RAW and JPEG files are here.

The challenge will close at 12:00 (noon) Pacific Daylight Time on Thursday, August 22nd.
 
Entry #1:

A dull, dingy day. A great day to stay indoors and play with some photo editing. ;) Capture One is really good at editing this type of image. So on to my usual procedure:

Raw file -> DxO PureRAW 4 (mainly for lens correction) -> DNG file -> Capture One Pro (Warming up White Balance slightly, added some Contrast, Saturation and Clarity, lots of Highlight and Shadow recovery and cropped out the top of the sky) -> JPEG file.

Cropping out the top of the sky did manage to get rid of the worst of the reflections, but some still remain towards the bottom right of the image. The Law of Diminishing Returns applied and I did nothing about that. ;)


DDD221-ORF.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
 
As always, I want to thank everyone who submitted an image. Your participation is appreciated!

There were 9 competing entries from 5 people. I was looking primarily at general processing (exposure, color, etc.), and secondarily, at how folks tried to mitigate which reflections.

I thought there were 4 primary reflection zones:
  • Soft vertical bars, left-hand sky. Nasty! (Rob R did the best job of hiding them, I think. I'm not sure anyone else tried -- maybe @Peano David.)
  • Blotchy reflection, upper right-hand sky. (Larry, @Zeus1 Hendrik, and Ken cropped this, while David and Rob R effectively smoothed them out.)
  • Sharp, angular reflections on the Thames around the Millennium Bridge (@gecko Rashid, David, and Ken smoothed/cloned them out; Rob R built structures there. For a well-known location, I found synthetic buildings odd.)
  • A large, fuzzy, light quadrilateral reflection over the whole bottom-right corner. I don't think anyone dealt with this.
Results:

The top two were very close for me.

Winner: @griffljg color -- I liked the exposure, color and detail.
2nd Place: @kae1 B&W -- My favorite of the monochrome submissions
3rd Place (tie): @RobD and @Rob R #1. The two Robs both made fine images.

Note to Rashid. Both of your submissions have a bar along the whole right edge. On the color image, the bar is B&W, and on the monochrome image, it is in color. I assume this was unintentional, but I don't know if it is a difficulty with your vision or a bug in your software. You might want to look into it.

Note to Rob R: I see you have participated in a couple of other challenges over the past few years. It would be nice to have you join us on a regular basis!


My take:

The feeling of the scene that evening was that the daylight was quite dim, even though the sun was still a quarter-hour from setting. Traffic lights and warning lights on cranes were easy to see and some lit windows were just visible. So I went dark and warm with my processing, coming in somewhere between Rob D and Larry. I tried to address all four of the reflection areas by crop or clone, but wasn't very successful on that left sky.

DDD221_01_1.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)


Over to you, Larry!
 
Last edited:
WhidbeyLVR said:
Note to Rashid. Both of your submissions have a bar along the whole right edge. On the color image, the bar is B&W, and on the monochrome image, it is in color. I assume this was unintentional, but I don't know if it is a difficulty with your vision or a bug in your software. You might want to look into it.
Click to expand...
Many thanks, Lyle. Even after your having pointed out the locations of the reflections, I still cannot see the three that I had missed (probably a combination of poor eyesight and deteriorating brain).
I plead guilty for trying to sabotage my entries: even as I try to do my best, I never expect to win, Yet I have won far too many times. So I thought that while still trying to do my best, I would try to ensure somehow that I won't win. Probably a misguided attempt and I offer my apology. Maybe I should try a more subtle approach? Maybe I can try asking not to be considered for 1st place?
 
Last edited:
gecko said:
Many thanks, Lyle. Even after your having pointed out the locations of the reflections, I still cannot see the three that I had missed (probably a combination of poor eyesight and deteriorating brain).
I plead guilty for trying to sabotage my entries: even as I try to do my best, I never expect to win, Yet I have won far too many times. So I thought that while still trying to do my best, I would try to ensure somehow that I won't win. Probably a misguided attempt and I offer my apology. Maybe I should try a more subtle approach? Maybe I can try asking not to be considered for 1st place?
Click to expand...
If you want to participate, but not compete, just say so. Others already do. If too many people take that route, however, the challenges may die from lack of hosts - a serious concern for me. I say, always do your best, don’t minimize your skills, be happy when you make a great image, and learn when you don’t. And always have a good time doing it, or what’s the point?
 
WhidbeyLVR said:
If you want to participate, but not compete, just say so. Others already do. If too many people take that route, however, the challenges may die from lack of hosts - a serious concern for me. I say, always do your best, don’t minimize your skills, be happy when you make a great image, and learn when you don’t. And always have a good time doing it, or what’s the point?
Click to expand...
Thank you. I did not want to "not compete" for the reason you mention. Yet I find that when I happen to win, I don't make a good host (poor at providing a reasonable image as well as at judging), thus lowering the standard of the Challenge.
 

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