Darkroom Challenge Digital Darkroom Derby #57 : Winner announced!

[rayvonn]

Don’t normally enter these and am not in it to win it, I’m just intrigued, as the shot appears to have been taken with a Nikon DF and Zeiss Distagon 35mm F2, so we’re talking quality gear here, none of which I’ve previously used. FWIW my laziness means I use gear requiring minimal PP of files, so it’s been a while since I’ve focused on a file to this degree.

Looking at the file, I wanted to emphasise the church more than what is initially shown, after all, that’s what the image is about. At the same time, the starting image is a bit overblown (for me) so required work, but that’s part of what having a raw file to work with is all about, so all good.

So this was my thinking:

1. With the various shades of blues, greens and oranges in the colour image, more prominence could be given to the church without the distraction of those colours if the image was in B&W; duly converted.
2. As the shot was taken with a DF and a Zeiss Distagon, I was thinking that sharpening and contrast would be as good as it gets out of the box and wouldn’t need adjusting, so I left that as is.
3. However, to handle the apparent overexposure in the file, I reduced exposure and highlights and applied some de-hazing whilst at the same time increasing shadows. This seemed to work for me anyway.
4. I also applied an increase in orange tones to the B&W file to emphasise the colour of the building and also adjusted the green and blue B&W tones to try and handle the grass and sky.
5. To further emphasise the church, slight cropping, straightening and vignetting is also applied. Possibly too much vignetting but hey ho. I think I did what I set out to achieve anyway. T’was good fun.

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[Irene McC]

shot appears to have been taken with a Nikon DF and Zeiss Distagon 35mm F2, so we’re talking quality gear here

Nodding my head with a smile - thank you

 

[kae1]

Entry #1 DXO PL5 then Elements and DeNoise

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[kae1]

Entry #2

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[BosseBe]

DxO PL5, usual things like ClearView, Contrast and Deep PRIME NR, adjusted the perspective.
Entry #1

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[BosseBe]

B&W from the above, Fuji Neopan Acros 100 film rendering from DxO Filmpack and a red filter.
Entry #2

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[Peano]

Not competing, just playing.

Dusk, Photoshop CS6

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[Juggernaut]

Vertical Correction and Mono Conversion in LrC

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[Peano]

Second version (still just playing, not competing). On the first version I think I had the verticals all hosed up, but I think I've got them closer to true on this one.

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[gecko]

Nice shot. Edited raw file in DxO PL5 then tweaked the image in Elements, as usual.

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[Irene McC]

Ding-dong, ding-dong - attention all ye!
This challenge is drawing to a close (and I really have my work cut out - some wonderful contributions here!)

If anybody wants to add to this thread before the cut-off, please get your edits in now

I will close this challenge at midnight our time (+2 timezone) : that's in 4.15 hours from now

 

[Irene McC]

Thank you all who played along - the entries are truly all excellent, I'm very un-eager to have to choose a 'winner' because these all look great!
First off I have to mention @Peano - I know you said you are not entering but your first entry made me sit up and your second entry certainly
makes this church look better to me than I've ever seen it! Well done. I have no idea how you achieved that result - but it looks superb.

The church itself always gives me a bit of a sense of foreboding and unease. Seen straight from the front, there are tall cypress trees on either
side and the colour of the brickwork seems a little gloomy to me. I'm sure the architects had the opposite in mind, but that's my impression.

Many of the B&W conversions are great, and although I specifically wanted to see how the colour was interpreted, since I struggled with this myself,
I really liked @Piano's 2nd entry, @kae1 's as well as @WhidbeyLVR's B&W ones

@Piano - those dark tones capture the foreboding atmosphere I described and I've seen the church late afternoon looking just like that - nice!

There are too many to comment on one by one, but there's not a single one that was a 'miss' - every one is a great interpretation in its own right.

Honourable mentions go to @Stiga's second entry (the P15+ACR one) - excellent vertical correction (nothing I've done in Capture One has come close)
Also @BosseBe - both entries are very nice
3rd Runner up: @RichardC - nice colours, clean, crisp and sharp
2nd Runner up : @WhidbeyLVR - this edit looks virtually like one I did, so yes, I have to like it

The winning entry is the gentle desaturated one by @Juggernaut - it captures the essence of the building and I like it very much.

Well done all - over to you, @Juggernaut !

Here's an edit of the frontal view (much nicer symmetry from that angle) that I did in 2016 in LightRoom

 

[Peano]

First off I have to mention @Peano - I know you said you are not entering but your first entry made me sit up and your second entry certainly
makes this church look better to me than I've ever seen it! Well done. I have no idea how you achieved that result - but it looks superb.

Thank you. For anyone interested in the techniques I used, I posted a tutorial on another forum that explains some of them. I would emphasize that the techniques are useful far beyond DTN (day-to-night) conversions, because they're mostly about how to selectively modify light and shadow in an image. ( I use only Photoshop CS6, and I generally avoid using filters that produce a one-click, global effect.) Here are a few examples of how I've used them. The applications really are unlimited.

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[Irene McC]

Thank you. For anyone interested in the techniques I used, I posted a tutorial on another forum that explains some of them. I would emphasize that the techniques are useful far beyond DTN (day-to-night) conversions, because they're mostly about how to modify light and shadow in an image. ( I use only Photoshop CS6, and I generally avoid using filters that produce a one-click conversion.) Here are a few examples of how I've used them. The applications really are unlimited.

View attachment 328067

Thank you for the link, I'll go have a look at that when I have a bit of time to devote to taking it all in

 

[Stiga]

Where' Juggernaut?

 

[WhidbeyLVR]

Where' Juggernaut?

He hasn’t been on since results were announced on Monday. Per the rules, @Juggernaut has 4 days to post the next challenge. If we haven’t heard from him by the end of Friday, I will look at it again on Saturday. I just hope he is okay and didn’t get caught in another Covid shutdown.

 

[Irene McC]

Thank you. For anyone interested in the techniques I used, I posted a tutorial on another forum that explains some of them. I would emphasize that the techniques are useful far beyond DTN (day-to-night) conversions, because they're mostly about how to selectively modify light and shadow in an image. ( I use only Photoshop CS6, and I generally avoid using filters that produce a one-click conversion.) Here are a few examples of how I've used them. The applications really are unlimited.

View attachment 328067

Thank you for the link @Peano I've had a look on my phone and am beyond massively impressed. Unless logged in to that site, it's not possible to view the explanatory images you posted any larger than thumbnails, but I can already tell its way beyond my capabilities (and I'm a Capture One user)

 

[Irene McC]

He hasn’t been on since results were announced on Monday. Per the rules, @Juggernaut has 4 days to post the next challenge. If we haven’t heard from him by the end of Friday, I will look at it again on Saturday. I just hope he is okay and didn’t get caught in another Covid shutdown.

@WhidbeyLVR as second in command, it will be over to you unless we hear from @Juggernaut in the next few hours

 

[WhidbeyLVR]

@WhidbeyLVR as second in command, it will be over to you unless we hear from @Juggernaut in the next few hours

@Juggernaut was on the forum earlier today, but neither posted a new challenge nor added a message here announcing any intention to do so. So lacking any response, I will be posting the next challenge either later this evening or tomorrow morning. I will check here one more time before I post.

 

[Juggernaut]

Thank you all who played along - the entries are truly all excellent, I'm very un-eager to have to choose a 'winner' because these all look great!
First off I have to mention @Peano - I know you said you are not entering but your first entry made me sit up and your second entry certainly
makes this church look better to me than I've ever seen it! Well done. I have no idea how you achieved that result - but it looks superb.

The church itself always gives me a bit of a sense of foreboding and unease. Seen straight from the front, there are tall cypress trees on either
side and the colour of the brickwork seems a little gloomy to me. I'm sure the architects had the opposite in mind, but that's my impression.

Many of the B&W conversions are great, and although I specifically wanted to see how the colour was interpreted, since I struggled with this myself,
I really liked @Piano's 2nd entry, @kae1 's as well as @WhidbeyLVR's B&W ones

@Piano - those dark tones capture the foreboding atmosphere I described and I've seen the church late afternoon looking just like that - nice!

There are too many to comment on one by one, but there's not a single one that was a 'miss' - every one is a great interpretation in its own right.

Honourable mentions go to @Stiga's second entry (the P15+ACR one) - excellent vertical correction (nothing I've done in Capture One has come close)
Also @BosseBe - both entries are very nice
3rd Runner up: @RichardC - nice colours, clean, crisp and sharp
2nd Runner up : @WhidbeyLVR - this edit looks virtually like one I did, so yes, I have to like it

The winning entry is the gentle desaturated one by @Juggernaut - it captures the essence of the building and I like it very much.

Well done all - over to you, @Juggernaut !

Here's an edit of the frontal view (much nicer symmetry from that angle) that I did in 2016 in LightRoom


View attachment 327963

Where' Juggernaut?

He hasn’t been on since results were announced on Monday. Per the rules, @Juggernaut has 4 days to post the next challenge. If we haven’t heard from him by the end of Friday, I will look at it again on Saturday. I just hope he is okay and didn’t get caught in another Covid shutdown.

@Juggernaut was on the forum earlier today, but neither posted a new challenge nor added a message here announcing any intention to do so. So lacking any response, I will be posting the next challenge either later this evening or tomorrow morning. I will check here one more time before I post.

Hi Guys, so sorry about my "AWOL" that has caused the confusion of this thread.
I have been experiencing difficults of accessing this forum for past few days because GOV here is tightening up the control of the access to the websites run by the western countries since 3rd Aug. At the most of time when I tried to access this forum, I saw the "Ooops" webpage and the local time window during which I might have the access was alway 3-4am in the early morning
I know this situation is probably the aftermath of Pelosi's TW visit, but I don't know how long it will last.
Again, my apologies, sincerely.

And thank you @Irene McC, I am very happy to know you like my post-work of the image.

@WhidbeyLVR - since I have automatically waived the winner position, you're the one now and feel free to post the next derby to keep this thread going.

- Larry