Sort of a last minute entry, so I don't expect too much from it. Perhaps in the 5.75 range.
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Clone out a small bit of skin and smoke
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Adj. Layer -> Contrast
Adj. Layer -> Levels
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Post Challenge:
I'm just amazed at the comments about how there's no fire here, or not enough fire, or whatever. Those people clearly don't understand that fire does not necessarily equal flame. Open your minds people. Oh, and if anything looks blown out here, then you need to calibrate your monitor. My histogram proves otherwise.
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Place: 30 out of 160 Avg (all users): 5.9150 Avg (commenters): 7.0952 Avg (participants): 5.7952 Avg (non-participants): 6.0000 Views since voting: 1109 Views during voting: 281 Votes: 200 Comments: 22 Favorites: 0
Some great focus here. Certainly meets the challenge. Good contrast between the subject and the background. There's some strange.. pixelling or something in the cigar after the label though that's somewhat weird and I'm not sure why its there, compression maybe? The lighting looks good and the composition is simple but effective. The subject doesn't interest me much though. I gave a 5
Ah, there we go... A shot where there is orange glow inside. Good job with that, as I feel that shots of smoking things that aren't really glowing don't seem as much to fit the challenge.
I like the title and composition. Great lighting as I love how the bottom part blends into the background. The smoke rising is just the right final touch.
Wow that stands out! Love the lighting on the label, and the faint wisp of smoke is great. Excellent clarity too. If I inhale really hard I can even smell it (yuck! :P) Great shot.
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