Construction Zone
by dswann

Comment by dswann:
I really appreciate all of the comments. I also appreciate everyone's accepting that this image was created with photoshop, and not with a tilt-shift lens. I have not invested in a lens baby system yet.

bmatt17 - I can see your point about the mud, but I did not really think about trying to mute it. In my experience in construction, the work sites are typically muddy this time of year so to me it added a touch of realism to the miniature looking scene. But your way may have looked better if I had tried it. :)

glad2badad - I started to sharpen the crane supporting cables as you suggest, but it quickly became too painstaking of a job, plus it was looking like crap. For some reason the cables were blurry and not well defined. It was extremely windy on the day of the shot, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it. Getting straight lines defined for the cables was about impossible for me using a mouse, so I elected just to leave them blurred and hope that I wouldn't be penalized for it. I agree that it would have been more realistic to have them.

Again, thanks to all for the great comments and fantastic score!

Construction Zone
by dswann

Comment by ahjenny:
This was my favorite! Congrats on the blue! :)

Construction Zone
by dswann

Comment by bmatt17:
Congrats on your ribbon. I voted you a bit below the curve. I gave you a 5 and thought I'd let you know why. You did a really good job getting the miniature feel to your photo but one thing bothered me and that is the mud. To me it's just too bright and wet looking and so it stands out. I'm curious what this would look like with the browns desat or somehow processed so that it looks like dirt instead of mud.

Construction Zone
by dswann

Comment by jomerner:
Congratulations on your Blue!! This shot is amazing!

Construction Zone
by dswann

Comment by Motek:
Lovely shot. Congrats on the blue!

Construction Zone
by dswann

Comment by glad2badad:
First off, congrats on the ribbon - that's WAY cool. I am surprised a little about one thing that nobody commented on. I should have, since it jumped out at me...related to the following post made during the challenge.

Originally posted by JimiRose: You've done a good job here with the planes of focus, keeping the crane arm in focus really adds to the realism.

On the crane arm, there are supporting cables that connect from the back of the crane to the top, and then cables coming down to the ground. Everything in the area of those cables, and even slightly behind, is in focus, yet the cables are blurred the same as the background. ???

I'm not faulting you, the photographer, for not doing the painstaking photoshop work to keep those cables visible (I can't say whether I would, or would not, have tried either); I'm just really surprised that it wasn't picked up on by people that left comments.

Crazy. Some things we (collective group at DPC) nitpik, and sometimes just blow right past it.

Anyway...again, congrats on your new PB, and congrats on not getting caught in that restricted area! :-)

Construction Zone
by dswann

Comment by VitaminB:
Congrats on the blue ribbon, this is an awesome image, and my favourite from the challenge.

Construction Zone
by dswann

Comment by briantammy:
looks like fraggle rock's doozers' jobsite. nice work. congratulations.

Construction Zone
by dswann

Comment by ekmai:
Congratulations on your Blue Dan.

Construction Zone
by dswann

Comment by Alicia:
Huge congrats on the Blue!! Such an awesome image for this challenge.