Darkroom Challenge Digital Darkroom Derby #94 - Closed - Winner Announced

griffljg

Top Veteran
Location
Lota, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Name
Larry Griffiths
Start Date: 26 Jan 2023
End Date: 30 Jan 2023

This is Digital Darkroom Derby #94, 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.

LJG33810.jpg
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In June 2021, I felt like a bit of a break. We had been cooped up with COVID for so long and, now that we were permitted to travel again, I just needed to get away from it all. So I packed cameras, MacBook, swag, clothes and big powered Esky full of food and drinks into the back of my car and headed north. I got as far north as Cooktown, before it occurred to me that I really should start heading off southwards back to Brisbane (and work).

About 30km (about 19 miles) south of Cooktown, I decided to stop off at the Lions Den Hotel for a bit of a leg-stretch and a nice cleansing ale, before tackling the Bloomfield Track down to Cape Tribulation.

I just couldn't resist taking a photo inside the bar. If you're looking for a definition of "busy" in the photographic sense, this is it! I would be interested to see what you can make of it.

Raw and JPEG files are here: DDD#94

Challenge closes on Monday 30th January at 6:00 am Brisbane time (GMT+10).
 
I just couldn't resist taking a photo inside the bar. If you're looking for a definition of "busy" in the photographic sense, this is it! I would be interested to see what you can make of it.
This is interesting. It appears to be a Photo-Fractal. The details are roughly self-similar at all scales, crops, or magnifications (unless you zoom in on the table tops or the patron’s backside).
 
Adobe Camera Raw to balance exposure with minor touchups in the highlights done in Photoshop (experimenting with a technique I ran across today). A crop to concentrate the relentless (and intentional) busy-ness of the scene. So, in order to honor all that detail and tighten it up, the file was given a quick trip through Topaz DeNoise AI after first downsizing for display.

DDD094-1 (1).jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
 
Thank you all who submitted entries to this Digital Darkroom Derby.

Looking at the "busyness" of the photo and the fact that it was taken at an ISO of 6400 on a micro four-thirds system, I felt that it was always going to be about noise reduction and cropping. Instead, I learnt a lot about alternative ways to process my own photo. Many thanks! But I also learnt about alternative ways to view the image to make it less overpowering. Most people submitted slightly different approaches, which made judging the images particularly difficult.

  • @Zeus1 got me thinking that some masking to take care of overexposure in some localised areas might be a good idea and so I tried it. It was!
  • Initially, I felt that @BosseBe 's submission was just a bit too contrasty and slightly over-saturated. But then I noticed that he had given the wooden chairs and table a nice rich colour , which I found to be particularly pleasing.
  • @RichardC 's crop made the image a bit more pleasing to my eye.
  • @WhidbeyLVR 's submission achieved a nice overall balance.
  • I liked @RobD 's crop, but thought that he could have done a bit more with noise reduction. But then I looked a bit closer and liked how the roughness of the wooden chairs had been enhanced by the noise and contrast.
  • @betamax also achieved a nice balance of exposures, noise reduction and cropping.
  • @Hendrik 's exposure and noise reductions were great, but I felt he cropped just a bit too much out of the bottom. He could have cropped a bit more out of the top. Or could he? Some of the lettering on the roof beams might have been lost.
  • @Dinobe , good first attempt. Next time please take a look at how you can improve the photo or maybe even modify it to fit in with your interpretation. Please don't be scared.
All of which left me with a huge problem. - How to choose a winner and runners up out of a list of great submissions....... Please note that my choices are subjective.

  • Second Runner Up: @Zeus1 . Nice treatment overall and very well done with the masking to address localised overexposure. I di, however, feel that the image was just a bit "flat". Maybe a bit more saturation and / or contrast.

  • First Runner Up: @RobD . I liked your cropping and the treatment of the wooden chairs and table. Another way of looking at the scene.

  • Winner: @WhidbeyLVR . A nice overall balance. I liked the way that you did just about everything and kept coming back to your submission.
Congratulations Lyle (@WhidbeyLVR ). Over to you now.
 
Thank you all who submitted entries to this Digital Darkroom Derby.

Looking at the "busyness" of the photo and the fact that it was taken at an ISO of 6400 on a micro four-thirds system, I felt that it was always going to be about noise reduction and cropping. Instead, I learnt a lot about alternative ways to process my own photo. Many thanks! But I also learnt about alternative ways to view the image to make it less overpowering. Most people submitted slightly different approaches, which made judging the images particularly difficult.

  • @Zeus1 got me thinking that some masking to take care of overexposure in some localised areas might be a good idea and so I tried it. It was!
  • Initially, I felt that @BosseBe 's submission was just a bit too contrasty and slightly over-saturated. But then I noticed that he had given the wooden chairs and table a nice rich colour , which I found to be particularly pleasing.
  • @RichardC 's crop made the image a bit more pleasing to my eye.
  • @WhidbeyLVR 's submission achieved a nice overall balance.
  • I liked @RobD 's crop, but thought that he could have done a bit more with noise reduction. But then I looked a bit closer and liked how the roughness of the wooden chairs had been enhanced by the noise and contrast.
  • @betamax also achieved a nice balance of exposures, noise reduction and cropping.
  • @Hendrik 's exposure and noise reductions were great, but I felt he cropped just a bit too much out of the bottom. He could have cropped a bit more out of the top. Or could he? Some of the lettering on the roof beams might have been lost.
  • @Dinobe , good first attempt. Next time please take a look at how you can improve the photo or maybe even modify it to fit in with your interpretation. Please don't be scared.
All of which left me with a huge problem. - How to choose a winner and runners up out of a list of great submissions....... Please note that my choices are subjective.

  • Second Runner Up: @Zeus1 . Nice treatment overall and very well done with the masking to address localised overexposure. I di, however, feel that the image was just a bit "flat". Maybe a bit more saturation and / or contrast.

  • First Runner Up: @RobD . I liked your cropping and the treatment of the wooden chairs and table. Another way of looking at the scene.

  • Winner: @WhidbeyLVR . A nice overall balance. I liked the way that you did just about everything and kept coming back to your submission.
Congratulations Lyle (@WhidbeyLVR ). Over to you now.
Thank you, Larry. Great challenge!

It has been awhile since I have hosted a DDD challenge. Travels and family have kept me too busy to participate regularly. The good news is I have a lot of new images to look through for the next challenge. I will post something later today.
 
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