Chocolate twist
by armelle

Comment by pacpinto:
Nice texture...

Chocolate twist
by armelle

Comment by KiwiShotz:
I like this, it has drama.

Chocolate twist
by armelle

Comment by NstiG8tr:
Should be in color

Cloud burst
by armelle

Comment by annah:
wow, looks more like a hurricane!
if i were you would have started running by now ;-)

Cloud burst
by armelle

Comment by Rikki:
i would work on the contrast for this image... is it possible to straighten out the light pole so that it doesn't appear that it's tilting? i'm not sure if that is legal in this challenge... 5

stepping away
by armelle

Comment by Dr.Confuser:
Armelle, your photo proves the rule that when you start with a great image, it's easier to end up with a great result. The original image is terrific right out of the camera. It's funny, when I look at the two thumbnails together, I like the edited version best. When I look at the two full size images together I like the original best. I think the contrast in the edited version makes a more dramatic thumb, but the subtle colors are terrific in the original.

I think the magic here would be to obtain the improvements in contrast and the highlighted lines without losing the color. Zed's done a nice job with his edit. Hopefully, you'll try to duplicate his edits to learn how he did them.

We all have our personal bias about color ... from my perspective, if God had wanted us to shoot B&W, he wouldn't have invented color film. Which is to say my personal bias runs toward color. But don't pay too much attention to my personal bias ... it's certainly not universal.

Cloud burst
by armelle

Comment by TheStick:
Nice composition and coloring!

stepping away
by armelle

Comment by Zed Pobre:

Originally posted by armelle: Zed Pobre: I do like your color rendition! I'll have to try your steps later tonight (although I don't know if Elements has 'selective color' and smart sharpen?). BTW, the figure was some stranger in the distance and I think he was wearing a backpack :)

Hrm. It probably doesn't have Smart Sharpen, since that's new to CS2. You can buy a plugin called Focus Magic that does pretty much exactly the same thing, though. I don't know if Elements has a Selective Color layer, but that's probably my most commonly used adjustment after Shadow/Highlight. You might be able to get some similar effects out of Hue/Sat, but it's nowhere near as precise.

stepping away
by armelle

Comment by pidge:
I like your b&w version. Very nice! However, I must agree with the others that the color version is also very nice. The clouds seems to lose some texture in the pp version. Maybe selecting the sky out and fiddling with it on a separate layer?

stepping away
by armelle

Comment by Zed Pobre:
I've put together my own color rendition of this (I hope you don't mind):



Steps are in the image description. This may just be a matter of differing taste, however.