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Mirage
Mirage
Rebecca


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Best of 2006 (Advanced Editing V*)
Camera: Nikon Coolpix 5400
Location: Mosca, CO
Date: Mar 25, 2006
Aperture: 7.9
ISO: probably auto
Shutter: 1/257.7 sec
Galleries: Landscape, Travel
Date Uploaded: Jan 5, 2007

 A re-edit of a popular favorite that shows just how much I have learned in the last eight months. I joined DPC nearly a month after this shot was taken on the road out from Great Sand Dunes National Park to Mosca. I pulled over when I glanced in the mirror and immediately realized what I needed to shoot.

If you look closely, the hazy line at the base of the mountains is actually the sand dunes. It's an interesting bit of perspective, to see how small the dunes actually are compared to the mountains surrounding them when we're accustomed to seeing them portrayed as looming giants.

Post-processing involved removing some contrails, along filling the right side of the mirror with the road (just your basic cloning job) and matching the horizons to maintain the illusion of continuity that I was going for (selected the horizon, free transform to skew and rotate, then a healing brush to fix the lines it created). There was a duplicate layer in overlay mode, dodging and burning, particularly on the mountains, a saturation boost in the yellow channel, some selective color to kill the really bright "hello BLUE!" shade of blue without cutting the saturation, and the blue was further muted by a pass with the draganizer action. Some selective levels on the mirror, and dragazining was removed from most of the road with a very soft eraser brush. Finished up with a resize and a smart sharpen. There may have been more, but they would have been basic adjustment levels.

Original edit, from before I knew how to do anything:

Statistics
Place: 83 out of 712
Avg (all users): 6.5330
Avg (commenters): 7.6750
Avg (participants): 6.5038
Avg (non-participants): 6.6207
Views since voting: 1989
Views during voting: 538
Votes: 349
Comments: 51
Favorites: 8 (view)

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AuthorThread
 06/06/2007 02:01:43 AM
What a fantastic image. This could have gotten a ribbon in a challenge that suits it!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/18/2007 12:22:45 PM
This shot is great...well done making it look good out of your head
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 04/10/2007 11:04:50 PM
Another incredible shot. And it speaks to my longing for Seattle, with its own mountains.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/17/2007 07:16:08 AM
WOW! ... and WOW! ... and did I mention WOW? What a beautiful PP job you did on THIS! Congratulations. It is astounding.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2007 09:06:26 PM
Becky - this is super!! Congrats on a great photo and a great finish :)

PB sista!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2007 01:01:46 PM
very nice. I liked this before but you ahve made it mcuh better.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2007 07:03:27 AM
Missed this during voting, great shot! Love the idea. Congrats on your new PB Becky :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
01/25/2007 09:17:00 PM
great idea, and well done, I like the real deep DoF
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2007 01:48:46 PM
Nice eye to catch this.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2007 08:53:55 AM
Nice shot. Reminds me of a long road trip I took over December. Often caught myself looking at the beautiful scenery in the mirror. Well executed.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2007 07:25:06 AM
Unique idea and very nicely done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2007 02:15:02 AM
Clever...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2007 10:12:45 PM
i'm so glad you over-sharpened this so i won't have to give it a 10 when i come back to vote ;-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2007 08:38:20 PM
that's very interesting! 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2007 12:54:42 PM
Sky and road colors look harsh, but what a great concept! I like it a lot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2007 05:08:57 AM
Great effect on this.
(but I bet you cheated and pulled over to take the shot - gotta' do it at 60)
Very creative and keeps my attention here.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2007 03:07:23 AM
... WOW! Just amazing. I love "optical illusion"ish stuff like this. Works very, very well here as everything is so smooth... by that I mean when I look at it it just SEEMS real - no attention is drawn to the behind-the-scenes setup, for me.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2007 01:56:46 AM
Indeed. Nicely captured
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2007 05:51:48 PM
Clever shot. Nicely done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/21/2007 09:52:16 PM
Original and creative as well as clear and well composed. Great subject that's well presented. 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/21/2007 05:35:42 AM
Way cool. Very nice processing as well.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2007 05:19:37 PM
Ooh, hey I recognize this ;] A great play on perspective and reflections.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2007 02:36:59 PM
I'm impressed! You really pulled this off well.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2007 07:29:49 PM
Very cool and unique shot! Love it!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2007 06:25:21 PM
Love the composition on this one, great shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/17/2007 12:31:57 PM
love the use of the mirror for the reflection.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/17/2007 10:20:38 AM
Great capture!! Congratulations!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2007 05:20:18 PM
There's something spooky about this image and I can't work out what! Great mountains in the mirror and I like the detail in the road :o)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2007 12:34:05 PM
Cute! Road is very contrasty, not sure what type of processing you did, maybe tone it down a bit
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/15/2007 06:39:11 PM
Well done. Excellent illusion. Good Luck.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/15/2007 03:32:09 PM
Very cool and creative.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/15/2007 02:39:31 PM
creative
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/15/2007 11:39:28 AM
Excellent composition! Maybe you should crop near half of the sky and left until the start of the yellow strip. All the attention should go for the mirror. Anyway, great job!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/14/2007 10:55:02 PM
i like the dramatic sky in this. i think the colors could be made even more saturated.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/14/2007 10:17:23 PM
great idea!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/14/2007 06:33:32 PM
This is neat. Good eye there. Giving a 9.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/14/2007 11:35:46 AM
Fun and creative! Good color, contrast and composition! 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/14/2007 10:18:59 AM
excellent, great concept ! i like it very much ... 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/14/2007 06:30:24 AM
awesome...and a great title as well
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/13/2007 08:28:15 PM
cool idea.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/13/2007 08:06:46 PM
Best: I just want to congratulate you and truly original and well executed image
Worst: This is tough, but perhaps the grass in the reflection...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/13/2007 05:38:08 PM
Very creative - I give you extra points for putting a twist on what might otherwise be a cliché mountain shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/13/2007 01:19:18 PM
Intriguing and impressive: and there's a reversal of colours in the mirror and reality too - just to point things up a little further. I would, of course, prefer this in black and white, but that's a valid choice. I like also that the 'mirage' isn't quite perfectly placed to match the background - just enough to let us know it isn't a missing mirrir or something.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/12/2007 10:13:00 PM
i hate the concept of photos taken in a car but you managed to do it in a creative and very interesting way. i love how the road appears to continue but the distant landscape changes dirastically.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/12/2007 04:39:06 PM
Cool perspective and good success in lining up the two road surfaces and the horizons. This concept has a whole ton of possibilities. You've presented this well. Good luck!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/12/2007 04:05:08 PM
WOW! Amazing is the word!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/12/2007 02:36:48 PM
cool vision, looks a bit fake though
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/12/2007 02:35:47 PM
great!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/12/2007 08:20:32 AM
WOW love it 10!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/12/2007 12:54:46 AM
I like it!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/12/2007 12:18:58 AM
Excellent planning on this shot, nice use of the desert and given issues of mirage to play into one. I like this one.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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