I toyed with a number of very boring ideas before I ran across this speed limit sign. I liked that it was fairly low to the ground (you never realize how tall those signs can be until you try to shoot them) and the bleak row of condo garages and multitude of power lines behind it. I had been quite upset that it's been raining all day every day since Tuesday (which is quite unusual for Colorado lately, though I'm told by natives that this mid-summer monsoon season is actually more normal than the drought conditions I've experienced since my arrival three and a half years ago), but decided to go out and shoot anyway. Wild Oats didn't have any of the magnificent large sunflowers today, so I made do with a red gerbera, which may end up becoming my trademark here on DPC since I've now used a single red gerbera in three challenges... ANYWAY... I caught a lucky break twice here: the rain stopped just long enough for me to snap a couple shots and the rain clouds turned out to be even better than the bright blue sky I had been hoping for. A friend keeps asking me, "But what does it mean?" It means nothing at all - just a bit of superficial quirkiness on my part. ;-)
Post-production:
Select sign w/ magnetic lasso, brighten/contrast 30/60
Select flower w/ magic wand, make new layer (Layer 1)
Layer 1: M-curve, Brighten/Contrast 20/30, Saturation +10
Background: desaturate
Select all but sky, new layer (Layer 2)
Levels on Background to dramatize clouds
Select sign, new layer (Layer 3)
Layer 3: Brighten/Contrast (10/20)
Layer 2: Brighten/Contrast (5/10)
Flatten Image
Neat Image
Cloned out a sign in the background
New layer, for the sign again.
Burnt clouds on background layer
Dodged sign and garage doors
Reflattened
Resized to 640
Save for Web (100%! How often does THAT happen?)
This is hands down the most PP I have ever done on a challenge entry. Phew!
Statistics
Place: 41 out of 219 Avg (all users): 5.9188 Avg (commenters): 6.8333 Avg (participants): 5.6818 Avg (non-participants): 6.1101 Views since voting: 1414 Views during voting: 318 Votes: 197 Comments: 8 Favorites: 0
i don't feel that the flower actually adds anything here; you would still have had a brilliant, atmospheric and stylish image without it. in fact, the flower just pushes it over the fineline of cheese... the angle of the shot, the choice of the environment (all those repetitive garage doors are visually very pleasing), the day you did it (lovely dramatic clouds) and the post processing are all what makes this top notch. 9.
Interesting image. The flower does add just the right amount of fun. I like how the speed limit sign is brighter than the rest of the image, it helps play up the dreariness. I do think it might be a bit more powerful if the image was cropped more on the left. Cropping out that left most home/garage thingie would compact the image a bit more and give just that much more emphasis on the sign. Focus looks good. I gave a 6.
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