Darkroom Challenge Digital Darkroom Derby #86 - Closed - Winner announced!

[Taneli]

This is Digital Darkroom Derby #86, 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.

I always take photos like this, can't resist, but then I wonder what to make of them. Would be quite interesting how other people interpret this subject I tried to pick a quite good and interesting one at least.

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Raw and JPG files can be found here

The derby will close at 20:00 CET on Friday 23 December 2022.

 

[griffljg]

This is Digital Darkroom Derby #86, 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.

I always take photos like this, can't resist, but then I wonder what to make of them. Would be quite interesting how other people interpret this subject I tried to pick a quite good and interesting one at least.

View attachment 353946

Raw and JPG files can be found here

The derby will close at 20:00 CET on Monday 23 December 2022.

Monday? Don’t you mean Friday?

 

[Taneli]

Monday? Don’t you mean Friday?

Well, yes! missed changing that

 

[Zeus1]

Never understood how people can enjoy loud, stinking motorbikes, sorry.

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[Irene McC]

I wouldn't change a thing - original pic looks good as is

 

[Herbert Hound]

Entry #1. I used Content Aware Fill in PS to get rid of the barbed wire, plus the bike's screen and mirrors, then used a letterbox crop on what was left of the image... plus some tweaks in LR.

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[Herbert Hound]

Entry #2. As above, but with a different crop and a B&W treatment...

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[wee-pics]

#1

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[wee-pics]

#2

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[kae1]

Entry #1 DXO PL5 then Elements and DeNoise

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[kae1]

Entry #2 Would normally have been B&W but I quite like the bike.

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[BosseBe]

Entry #1:

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[BosseBe]

Entry #2:

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[betamax]

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[griffljg]

I wouldn't change a thing - original pic looks good as is

I agree. There is nothing that I can do to improve it..... Except for maybe blurring a bit along the sides to give an impression of speed, as some of the others have done. But then the speedometer would still be reading "0"...... Except for @kae1 . Very well done!

 

[Taneli]

...I have a good idea of what necessary improvement the original pic could have but, back to that later.

Still nine hours left for some final submissions!

 

[Peano]

Not competing, just horsing around . . .

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Edit: Horsing around with the instrument illumination. This is good practice . . .

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[Taneli]

Challenge closed, results comes soon

 

[gecko]

I waited to submitted my entry until after the Challenge has closed. Nice challenge. I thought I'd try a wide-open lens aperture . . .

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[Taneli]

Ok, thanks for many nice contributions, some very nice ideas here.

@Irene McC & @griffljg : well thanks, but I think original pic could need some improvements. I thought of three things:
1) "fix" the brightness on the GPS, you gotta see what it shows (it gets like that on photos).
2) slightly more pop in the colors, I think the original is a little flat.
3) decrease contrast a little, or maybe just lift the shadows just slightly, very carefully so it does not look over-processed, just closer to the dynamic range of the eyes.
Actually @kae1 's first contribution was close to what I had in mind! (post #10)

@Zeus1 (& @Herbert Hound partly) : ok understand your point, one can not like everything. I just gotta say I usually have bicycle handlebars (like this), but thought the moped here was more exciting. But your edit is like cutting away the face of a portrait shot nice to see a post either way, it was good edits but they won't win, no offense.

So, the final results is:

2:nd runner up: @wee-pics entry 2 (post #9): this was cool, nice use of the little planet effect

1:st runner up: @BosseBe entry 2 (post #13): really like the b&w version, your first was a little too contrasty (clarity?) for my taste but this version is really great. It is what makes a b&w photo good, doesn't imediately tell you the story, when you first look it's nice, but if you look more deeply the picture comes alive.

Winner: @kae1 I had a really hard time chosing entry 1 or entry 2 (post #10/#11). They are both winners I think. Entry 1 is like I thought I should have edited the pic. Maybe the color tint could be a tad less green (?), but I really like it. Entry 2 however, wow! it is awesome, what a creativity you got all the details correct to make this approach perfect. I think I like this version more after looking at them side by side.

Special mention:

@Peano : as usual, fantastic edit and creativity. GPS could have background lit as well. But very nicely done, it looks very authentic, great work! Hope you continue horse around!

...and also @gecko : this was very nice, too bad you posted off-challenge, but anyway, glad you posted, nice pic!

So, that was that. It was fun this. I hand over to @kae1 for a christmas challenge!

and by the way, Merry Christmas all!