Photographer’s Notes Okay … last Free Study of the year. Let’s pull out all the stops. This is the view from my house, looking west over Lake Washington towards Seattle. I love living here, love the weather we see and experience, love the sunsets.
This was the sunset on the afternoon of December 28th … afternoon? Well sunset comes early to northern latitudes in winter.
The "Alchemist" reference in the title is a nod to the fact that this is clearly a “made” image. While I started with a fine image, one that pleased me initially, I wanted to really push it (within the limits of advanced editing, of course.)
Maybe you’ll like this, even love it, as I do. Maybe you’ll hate it. Let’s let the voters decide if I've turned lead into gold ... or blue in this case.
Post Processing • HDR 7 Images toward Realistic (Photomatix)
• HDR Same 7 Images toward Cartoonish (Photomatix)
• Tone Map Each Image (Photomatix)
• Blend Images (PSCS4)
• Correct Lens Distortion (PSCS4)
• Crop (PSCS4)
• Darken Sky (PSCS4 Overlay Layer – Gradient Mask)
• Remove Sensor Dust (PSCS4 Clone Layer – Gradient Mask)
• Darken Water (PSCS4 Overlay Layer)
• Push Yellows and Reds (PSCS4 Hue/Sat Layer)
• Save 7 Bracketed Versions (PSCS4 Exposure Layer)
• HDR 7 Bracket Images (Photomatix)
• Tone Map ({hotomatix)
• Push Yellows & Reds (PSCS4 Hue/Sat layer)
• Push Contrast (PSCS4 Curves Layer)
• Lighten Sky a Little (PSCS4 Overlay Layer)
• Desaturate Green (PSCS4 Chanel Mixer Layer – Masked)
• Resize (Genuine Fractals)
• Border – Blur (PSCS4 Gaussian Blur – Masked)
• Border (PSCS4 Stroke Layer)
• Save for Web (PSCS4)
Camera Data • Date: 2009-12-28
• Camera: Nikon D3
• Lens: Nikon AF Fisheye-Nikkor 16mm f/2.8D
• ISO: 800
• Aperture: f/13
• Shutter: Various
Statistics
Place: 56 out of 334 Avg (all users): 6.1437 Avg (commenters): 7.6000 Avg (participants): 6.2017 Avg (non-participants): 6.0182 Views since voting: 1422 Views during voting: 318 Votes: 174 Comments: 7 Favorites: 1 (view)
I never got a chance to go through all the entries in this challenge so did not see this (I might have recognized it) but it seems it should have scored higher to me. I love the processing. I never thought of doing two processes in Photomatix and then blending them, cool concept.
I normally would not score this style of image higher then average. The 'dreamy' blurred items of the docks and land create a huge distraction for me. However this image did get higher then average because of the dramatic appeal of the sky and colours as well as the horizon line and water reflection.
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