PP Challenge #1

[Dave Humphries]

There are links below to this one image available in 3 formats; nef RAW, DNG and a full size jpg.

As you can see, it is far from a good capture

Yes, he is carving - or sculpting, with a chainsaw!

What you do:
1) Download the image from the links below, use whichever format you can handle easiest for PP
2) You have a go at making the best of it, but
3) Keep a record of what you did and
4) Post your result in this thread, if more than one image, put them in separate posts please

The competition closes on the 20th January 2010 (10 days)

5) The winner has to tell us all what they did

Here are the image links:
RAW (nef) from Nikon D5000 - 10.1 MB
If you have problems with NEF download, please read this post (it's #16 below)
DNG for ACR 2.4 and higher - 7.9 MB
Full size unprocessed jpg - 1.1 MB

What I do:
Depending how many entries depends how we vote, if 10 or less, I'll set up a poll (like Mini Comps), if more than 10, it will be the PM method (like the monthly competitions).

That's it for now, we'll see how it goes and can tweak the format or rules if we need to next time around. Any questions, just ask, I have refrained from trying to answer questions I think may arise because this first post will get too long.

Good luck all,

[Donald]

Voting Number V2

Okay, here's the first one.

[Dave Humphries]

This is gonna be good; that's not what I was expecting

[willgoss]

Voting Number V3

Here is my 10 Minute Fix.....

I wanted to increase detail and improve the local contrast.....the fastest easiest way was to use Topaz Adjust......I used 3 passes....

The first was to Clarify using a preset I had made...(Brighten & Lighten-Adjusted Contrast & Brightness also within Topaz)
The Second was to Denoise again with my preset....(Clean up some shadowing)
The third was to add detail with HDR1 preset....(added Detail)
Finally I cropped it........

I can print out the Presets settings if requested.....

I ran Topaz in XnView and cropped there and added border.....I also could have run Topaz in Paint Shop Pro.....but in Gimp I would have needed to use XnView for running the PS-Type Plugin....

[ScoutR]

Voting Number V4



My contribution. Just the obvious I'm afraid.

Wendy

[Steve S]

Voting Number V5

Tough image with that net in front....................a more traditional approach.(color, sharpness, detail)

[Dave Humphries]

Tough image with that net in front

Yes, I wanted to see if anyone managed to remove it
Not that that will necessarily result in winning, but that would be a challenge!

I don't mind if people want more than one go.

[wjh31]

Voting Number V6

What the heck, heres a half-hearted attempt from me. Portraits arn't my normal thing but i thought I'd give it a go since it's the first.

[arith]

Yes, I wanted to see if anyone managed to remove it

Donald has removed it; I had a go but gave up. I've got a tool that removes pimples that could work but it would take hours.

[PopsPhotos]

Voting Number V7

I wanted to see what Picasa would do for me in this venue. I spent about 7 minutes on this and did not use the automatic clicks. Brought up highlights 50%, brought up fill about 40 % and brought up shadows about 10%.

I'm interested to see how it stands up to REAL post processing.

[milleniummuppet]

Voting Number V8

What net?
You talking about that weird pattern all over the curtain?

[Getsome]

Voting Number V9

Adjusted the Hues, Sats, and contrast. then flipped it just for funzies. This was cool

[Henrik]

Voting Number V10

It's a bright sunny day

(But the NEF file doesn't work!)

[milleniummuppet]

Voting Number V11

Artistic versions now .
Original and square-cropped to try and solve the compositional problems.

[milleniummuppet]

Voting Number V12

Artistic versions now .
Original and square-cropped to try and solve the compositional problems.

[Dave Humphries]

~ (But the NEF file doesn't work!) ~

What if the nef doesn't download for you?

Most Common problem:
We have discovered that if you attempt to download the NEF from the link with Internet Explorer, it saves it apparently as a Tif - but it isn't, so after download, change the filename extension from ".tif" to ".NEF" and it should work.
(There was also a problem with the filename here at CiC, but that is now fixed)

Version problems of ACR
If Photoshop Elements 6 or Photoshop CS2/3, check the version of ACR you have; it must be 5.4 or 5.5. If you can't update, or have an even older version of one of the above programs, please use the DNG link.

If you have Photoshop Elements 7/8, Photoshop CS4 or LR2.x, check the version of ACR you have; it must be 5.4 or higher. If yours is earlier, you can download ACR 5.6 to fix the problem.

See here for which cameras are supported by which ACR versions.
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/407/kb407111.html

Otherwise, assuming you're using something else; is there an update for that?
The D5000 came out on 1st May 2008 (in UK at least), so is your programme more recent than that?

Cheers,

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Matt,

I split your 2nd and third goes into separate posts. (#14 and #15)

Oh, and I snuck back up and changed the rules to ask for this in future

Obviously not a problem as it was my fault I didn't already have that in the rules.

btw I did it to ease voting issues in due course.

Cheers,

[milleniummuppet]

Cheers , no problem.

[Colin Southern]

Voting Number V13

Using my experience in portrait retouching, I've concentrated more on the model in this version ...

[Donald]

Using my experience in portrait retouching, I've concentrated more on the model in this version

I'm really concerned about us allowing this image. We're promoting clear breaches of health & safety regulations. She hasn't got ear mufflers on!!