After submitting my 'Into the Morning Mix' image with only a couple seconds to spare at the deadline, I realized that when viewed on my CRT monitor the colors looked kind of nasty. I processed the image on my laptop just using the LCD and it looks a lot different there.
So I figured I'd try to see if I could make the image better, and here's my second try at it. I plugged my laptop into a CRT montitor and started over from the raw NEF file. I used less saturation and I did less intensive tweaking of the curves. Also, I did some burning around the edges.
Nikon 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G @ 70mm, four 500W halogen lights, large white bounce card, 6 fresh Starbucks coffee beans.
I think I have a better version of this image now. I started doing my sharpening in the LAB color space, and I think I'm getting better sharpness and clarity with it. Also, I think this version has lost too much detail (probably mostly due to burning) in the dark parts of the background pattern, especially in the lower right corner.