Tee hee. . .you are almost there at your coveted 6 mark :) For what it's worth, I think this is definitely worth at least a 6. And look at the score your commenters (the REAL DPC'ers :) gave you. The processing has that edgy grungy look that is so popular on DPC. I love it! I think this is really artistic and rich, and I have a feeling that if it were in any other challenge besides the "oh-so-brutal" free study, it would have easily been in the 6's!
You know, I love this type of editing. I wish that people in here were more tolerant of it. That's the entire reason we have editing software so that we can be creative with it. Otherwise, we'd simply take out our 35 mm cameras and shoot. I like this one! But, unfortunately, I have a feeling (through experience) that this type of editing will likely lower your score. HUGS and good marks from me!
Right then, joke's on me as I now have to plough through 564 images and bump them all (yes, all of them) up. There'll be a third run through for fine tuning. It's day two three now and I'm running late, sorry.