Darkroom Challenge Digital Darkroom Derby #65 (closed, results posted)

Location
Whidbey Island
Name
Lyle
This is Digital Darkroom Derby #65, a digital image editing/processing challenge.

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

DDD065-web.jpg
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Clouds and cows on a Skagit Valley farm.

The RAW and JPG files are here.

The challenge will close at 10:00 AM Seattle local time on Thursday, September 15th.
 
Edited with Capture One Pro.......

Too much sky. So cropped back to 16:9........ Too little sky. Tried 3:2. - That looked OK.
High Dynamic Range Highlight to -100 Shadow to +30.
The default white balance left the image looking a bit cold and so I warmed it up a bit. Then the greens appeared to be a bit too saturated and so I also wound the green hue back a bit.

This is what I was left with:

DDD065.jpg
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Entry #2. I thought I'd go seriously minimalist for this one... so I hit it with my latest custom preset (which included the border), brought up the shadows, added a vignette to the bottom two corners using a radial mask and it was done (all in LR). It took less time than actually writing about it! No cropping... no cloning... no Photoshop!

DDD065.jpg
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Not competing, just experimenting with composition/color. A very pretty scene. I moved a cow and a cloud, demolished buildings on left, cropped, and adjusted color in Topaz Clarity (not sure why, but I find the color sliders in T. Clarity more responsive than in other applications, so I've grown to prefer that for color tweaking).

cows-1200.jpg
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Can't say as I have any strongly held issues with the composition. Tried to keep things simple. All accomplished in Adobe Camera Raw. Brightened the scene. Pointed up the screen of trees. Nudged the white balances of the sky and land a bit apart. Took some humidity out of the air to bring the mountains a bit closer. Removed a few distracting elements. Crop to balance sky and land while keeping the truly interesting clouds.

DDD065-1.jpg
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Thank you to everyone for your excellent entries. I wasn't sure what the results would be. I was concerned I might have a bunch of nearly identical images to choose from. But my worries were misplaced, because you provided a nice variety of images and approaches.

When I shot this photo, it was all about the clouds. Sure, there were cows and trees, but they were there to hopefully provide some balance and variety in a final composition. In the judging, I looked at the photos as neutrally as I could, but I must admit that I brought along some baggage about the clouds. I found I was drawn to good skies rather than good livestock. I liked both color and B&W entries. I didn't mind the buildings in the distance as long as they stayed small, but thought they detracted when a crop made them larger and more obvious. I liked a bit of local contrast enhancement to add drama to the clouds without making them unreal.

I want to thank @Peano for his image along with clear visual representation of the edit process. I liked the result.

My honorable mentions are entries by @Taneli, @Stiga , and @BosseBe .

It was very difficult to choose between my top four picks...

3rd Place: tie @Herbert Hound #2 and @betamax #2 -- Very nice entries in color and B&W.
2nd Place: @Hendrik #2 B&W -- Maybe my favorite crop, and nice processing all around.
Winner: @griffljg -- I kept coming back to this one. I liked the crop, the warmer palette and that beautiful sky.

It is over to you, Larry. I look forward to seeing what you bring us.
 
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