Mirage
by Rebecca

Comment:
Very creative - I give you extra points for putting a twist on what might otherwise be a cliché mountain shot!

Frost in Llanfihangel
by noot

Comment:
Nice imagery - love the color produced by the frost on the grass.

Slow Progress
by Ben

Comment:
I recall seeing this in your portfolio & remember really liking it - very appealing composition with a nice pattern of light & shadow. I can't think of a better title to bring attention to the plight of the figure here. The only faults here would be the blooming on the left (center blooming works well for this image, though) and the ever so slight sense that your focus is soft.

Really like it - very strong image! << 9 >>

Oyster Lake
by Zoomdak

Comment:
Beautiful lighting but I think framing more lake (and its accompanying reflections) would have worked better here.

Enter
by JPR

Comment:
Beautiful tones & mood - love the way the light was working for you here! << 8 >>

... sunrise trees & MORE COWS!! ...
by roz

Comment:
Another beauty!

Fixing this one is fairly easy (this is with CS2):

1) Duplicate your base layer.

2) In this new layer, create a mask that makes a rough selection of the top left 1/4 (the trouble area) so as to minimize the following steps to that region (may or may not be necessary, but I prefer nondestructive editing and this will also give you one click comparisons in the end).

3) Working on the masked layer 2: With your magic wand, click & select that bothersome red strip. You'll need to adjust the tolerance control setting in order to get the isolation right, but I would guess a setting around 20-25 would do. Make your selection right in the reddest part, which will probably give you a small selection of 'dancing ants', then go to Select > Similar. You should now have a lot of 'dancing ants' everywhere. Go to Select > Feather and choose a value between 4 & 12 pixels to soften the selection a bit.

4) Now, switch to your burn tool - choose a brush size equal to about 5-15% of your entire image width (like 200 pixels) and with hardness set to zero, set the range to 'highlights' and the exposure to around 25%.

5) Start clicking on your selection areas to bring down that red halo. You might find it easier to see your results if you hide your selection indicators (View > Show > Selection Edges). Play around a bit with it see what works & to also see if your selection was good (undo is your friend here, so make sure you have plenty of undo levels set in your preferences!) If you find you're darkening too quickly, then lower the exposure setting even further.

The biggest problem you'll have here is the overlap of your selection, so make sure you have that right before you start burning or you'll end up getting a dark lines mimicking the old bright ones! Also, remember you can fine tune your layer 2 mask, settings & opacity so that the overall effect is more subtle.

6) Hide & unhide your layer 2 to see the improvement! If it is unsatisfactory, try doing it over with different settings...

Message edited by author 2007-01-13 03:12:17.

... trees at sunrise ...
by roz

Comment:
This is nice - love the layers of contrast! Beautiful tones & depth...

BTW, thanks for all the AWESOME comments you made on my shots

... fenced in ...
by roz

Comment:
Everyone seems to offer suggestions for post, so I'll throw one in for pre -- knowing how hot that sky was going to be, I would have put a few more shots in the bag in case I couldn't salvage the sky later.

In this scenario I can picture a shot where you got much closer to the cows, framing more cow heads in the shot and going a bit more profile, moooving your perspective down the line of the fence. I would have raised my camera height a bit, too in order to crop more sky out of the shot.

Some days you just can't save a sky in post! Well, you sorta can... When the 'Best of 2006' challenge is complete, take a look at my entry to see what I did to save a blown sky that took up 50-60% of my image!

... nature's necklace ...
by roz

Comment:
Much belated congrats on this one, roz - it is a real beauty!

... purple mist ...
by roz

Comment:
This is beautiful! I love the layers of contrast as the mist takes over in the background. Purple is my fav, but you made it work here!

I didn't vote in this challenge - too much going on that week - what with my entering challenges left & right!
ha ha!

Seriously, I sorta deliberately chose to sit out the voting on the free study, but I would have thought this one should have placed much higher than it did! Oh well, you know how the saying goes...