This photo comes from my amazing trip to South Africa. In the Franschhoek valley, there are dozens of absolutely amazing wineries, and hundreds of amazing views. This particular view is looking out the front door of the Mont Rochelle winery. My wife and I got there just at opening for some early wine tasting. About 3/4 of the way through the tasting, I happened to look to my left, and saw this perfect mixture of glass, wood, and mountains. I ran down to the car, grabbed my camera, and took a couple photos. I knew I had something special.
Taken near the end of August, I didn't have much for internet access after taking this, so I couldn't replace my August entry with this. But it's ok, as I knew the best of 2010 challenge was coming, and I bought Topaz after my trip. Topaz really helped to clean this up without leaving the ugly halos I had on the mountains before purchasing Topaz.
Post Processing:
* Topaz Adjust
* Crop
* Lower Exposure
* Increase Brightness
* Increase Contrast
* Increase Definition
* Increase Saturation with lower Vibrancy
* S-curve
* Highlights and shadows
* Increase Yellow Saturation
* Decrease Blue Luminescence
* Dodge the sky
* Burn the mountains/bushes
* Blur the sky
* Export as TIFF
* Resize to 1600 px
* Sharpen Edges
* Resize to 800 px
* Add a very slight blue tint to the sky
* Save as JPG
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For me this is one of the finest images in the challenge. The atmosphere is unbelievable, speaks about a warm sunny day that you want to remember forever.
What a beautiful view that invites me to sit down, take a seat and have a glass of wine:-) Lovely colors and inviting scenery you have captured. It is inviting but I feel the composition could be stronger. First off I think that the horizontal presentation doesn't play up the strengths of the lines and shapes in the scene. A vertical composition would compliment the vertical shape of the tiffiany glass windows and the open door view. Not only that but you would capture more of the full length of the chair that would further be an invitation to the viewer to have a seat.
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