Hillside Sunrise
by GeneralE

Comment:

Originally posted by meanwile: Hi again... you know, there are some lovely magentas and reds that could be brought out a little in this shot... I actually played with it a bit and pulled out a nice pastel, realistic-looking sunrise (IMO, haha). Just used curves, selective color adjustment, and hue/sat. Cropped a bit to let the little tree shine. I can't believe you shot this blind from a car... that's remarkable!

Thanks! You're welcome to post your alternate it you want -- if you're short on space email it to me and I'll post it in my portfolio.

I have a common red-green type of color-blindness, so messing around with curves carries a greater-than-usual risk of ending up "un-natural-looking" -- for example, this very early entry of mine:

Stand Out in Camo
by GeneralE

Comment:

Originally posted by madison461: A fashion statement: Join up?

Not really, more about the contradiction in wearing camouflage in the urban environment, where it makes one stand out rather than blend into the background.

If I'd been able to get cooperation from the other kids, I was thinking about shooting a long line of kids' lower legs, but with only one in camouflage ... however, I got no such cooperation : )

The Midas Touch
by GeneralE

Comment:

Originally posted by kteach: Ok.. I think I finally figured out what this one is! 2 fingers held up to the side of your cheek... thats your hair and your chin! And you tried to give it a golden tone to represent things turning to gold with the Midas Touch! Or, I could be wrong :)

Bingo! My son Isaac's cheek, actually.

I had considerable difficulty and really limited working time to try and get a metallic gold look; being able to use the advanced editing rules would have been a big help here, especially in being able to keep the fingers naturally-colored.

Pancho's Tank
by GeneralE

Comment:

Originally posted by mike747: I think it's a bit oversaturated... sorry

Here's a link to a resized but otherwise unprocessed version for comparison.

Hillside Sunrise
by GeneralE

Comment:

Originally posted by meanwile: ... If a different composition or a better defined/esthetically-pleasing tree were not available, I'd probably do as you did and mess with the sky color/texture, although not quite as extremely. Better luck next time ;-)

Thanks! I was kind-of stuck as far as compositional choices go, since this was taken from the middle of the freeway at 60 MPH, without using either the viewfinder or the video screen.

I guess I thought that getting this quality of framing, lighting, timing, and (almost) focus under the circumstances was an accomplishment which deserved the opportunity to stand on its own. Someplace I have yet another version which has tonal adjustment but not the radical color shift of the currently-posted alternates -- I'll post that one too.

Hillside Sunrise
by GeneralE

Comment:
I guess I should have submitted one of the "enhanced" versions instead of this virtually unprocessed one, which I thought was my best "pure photograph" of the month.

First alternate: Second alternate:

Painted Lady
by GeneralE

Comment:

Originally posted by train: This looks stunning why didnt you crop it in to gets rid of the distactions of the back ground Its quite hard to focus on the actual image of the flower and butterfly Detail is great just that background is not

I have been trying to concentrate on my camera skills and not editing, so I've been submitting a lot of uncropped shots just to see how successful my composition has been. I was actually very happy to achieve the DOF/bokeh effect, as it's hard to do with this camera. I like the riotous colors, though they do provide camouflage, they also mimic/mirror the colors of the subject.

Another consideration is that this is only a 3MP original -- cropping would probably limit me to 5x7 prints, even with a border.

I can try fading the BG to make the butterfly pop out a bit more, and maybe I'll try a vertical crop as well -- thanks for the sugggestion.

Panorama in 4:3
by GeneralE

Comment:

Originally posted by kteach: I'm not sure if I like the overall lack of color since it keeps it consistent with the sign, or if I would like to see more color in the top half. Creative shot and perfect for the challenge. Nicely done.

There really wasn't any color in the original -- it was a gray,hazy day and this view is at least partly backlit.

At first I tried it in a warm sepia-like look, but though it gave the sky a nice glow, it made the concrete and the sign (the real subject) look a little funny, so I switched to a Black/Cyan duotone for that cooler, foggy look.

Gorgeous George?
by GeneralE

Comment:

Originally posted by agenkin: I can barely see any DOF isolation in this shot.

It was only after the challenge started and I saw a thread on using "artificial" DOF (selective blurring), that I thought to use that technique to enhance this one.

Girl from Ipanema
by whiteroom

Comment:
I like the composition with the nice strong diagonal line.