Here is my entry.
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My first comp entry of 2023ā¦
(just scrolled up and noticed that Iāve managed to land on almost exactly the same crop as @SirGunner ā¦ coincidence, I swear 
)
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Hi, as soon as I saw the original I thought of star gates, and this is where that thought went.
Done in PS with support from two starry images from unsplash, Casey Homer on unsplash and Denis Degioanni on unsplash, hope thatās appropriate
Do you have an image you want as an entry? If so you better get cracking as chucking out time is 7pm
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HI, that was it :-), I thought this was open to all form of edits, my bad if not and no worries if thatās not the case.
Thanks
Sorry Nigel, there have been a few changes made whilst I was trying to make things more engaging for you guys, and easier for me to manage. So things may have got a little confused. For this comp, and all others following, we are not allowed to ADD anything from an external source, you can clone out and remove as much stuff as you like. You still have time though. Jugding by some of the entries weāve had in so far, an hour and twenty minutes should be enough to smash it out the park mate!!! 
Sorry peeps, couldnāt resist
And while Iām here, come on @DeanoG60 please put an entry in?
Please vote for up to 3 edits. Please do not vote for your own entry, you will be disqualified.
Voting will end automatically a week from now.
Yes I am fully aware that an entry has got stuff included. But I am partly to blame on that score for d!(Ā£!ng about with the format too many times. The vote is completely up to the membership. So on this occasion, YOU can decide by using your vote!!! In otherwords, PLEASE donāt fill this up with messages or sending ChallCom DMās to complain, vote for itā¦or donāt.
(And yes, I mean that in the nicest possible way 
)
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OOPS I DID IT AGAIN!
The votes are in and all is set in stone!!!
Well done to all that entered on what was a very challenging comp. All was in the shadows and everyone managed to lift @clinkadink photo up to reveal the hidden detail.
In a worthy Third place is John @Drumsagard
2nd place goes to another fine edit from Andy @rustybarnet
But topping the lot is Joe @JoeC 
Another thread shall be opened shortly, where @JoeC shall be invited to provide a pic for us to mutilate for the next round. And if you wouldnāt mind Andy, we would love to hear any thoughts you can share on how, and why, you arrived at the edit you presented.
Keep āem cominā cowboys (and cowgirls if you want to)
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Well done @JoeC, @rustybarnet and @Drumsagard for their winning edits. And to everybody else too. I can recall editing that myself last year, and it was a tough one due to the low light. Congrats
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Well done to the winners and to all who gave it a go
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Thanks guys. Iām a bit red-faced here as it seems like I somehow managed to forget to vote myself 
As far as what I did goes, given that I forgot to vote youāll probably forgive me for not remembering the exact process! I HDR-merged the photos in Lightroom and did the initial crop.
After some initial tweaks to the exposure and curve adjustments, I applied a mask to the sky and increased the white balance to bring out the yellows and oranges. And then applied a separate mask to the monument to lift some of the details by boosting the shadows and adding some clarity.
Unfortunately thatās about all I can recall. Fairly sure it was a late night editā¦ 
Finally congrats to @JoeC and @Drumsagard for their entries, as well as everyone else who submitted entries. This āfun and friendlyā comp is getting very competitive!
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Wow! Thanks everybody. Itās been a busy week (and itās my wifeās birthday today) so Iād completely lost track of things. What an excellent surprise, especially given the field of entries - really excellent all round 
Iāve lost my notes on what exactly I did, but it was very similar to Andyās brilliant edit - merged the HDR and then did some initial overall adjustment of exposure and temperature before I did some more tweaking on masked areas. Started with the sky to get the orange out. Then an inverse mask on the sky intersected with an object mask to subtract the stones which I used to change the colour temperature of the grass to bring in a bit of the orange, and also dropped the saturation a bit so it wasnāt as distracting. Final mask was of just the stones (object mask) to take out some of the brightness and grey. Then worked out the crop I liked before going in for a little bit more overall tweaking of shadows and highlights.
1 Like