Thank you to everyone for the great comments and votes in this challenge! Since a few folks were wondering about the pp steps, I will post them in a day or two as I need to get some sleep tonight! (: Very happy with coming in 4th with this image.
Processing steps: (I think there are some more minor steps but these are the important steps)
converted 6 images to TIF files in Lightroom 2
Exported from Lightroom 2 to Photomatix Pro
Tone mapped into HDR using details enhancer
opened in PS CS4 raw editing window
adjusted temperature
adjusted exposure (very little)
adjusted black levels
adjusted fill light and recovery
adjusted brightness and contrast slightly
decreased green hue saturation
decreased blue hue saturation
increased red hue saturation very slightly
decreased red chromatic aberration
Opened in PS CS4
Cropped image
copied background layer
applied Noiseware Pro to entire image for sharpness and some slight noise reduction and soften the clouds
adjusted levels for contrast and brightness
applied effect difference clouds to entire image at 30%
burned the clouds a bit to darken the undersides
decreased blue hue
decreased green hue
USM
cloned out some lens dust that occurred because it was windy and I was laying on the ground stirring up dust particles
reduced to 800 pixels
saved for the web
Statistics
Place: 4 out of 92 Avg (all users): 6.7987 Avg (commenters): 8.3889 Avg (participants): 6.6531 Avg (non-participants): 6.8636 Views since voting: 3289 Views during voting: 321 Votes: 159 Comments: 27 Favorites: 7 (view)
There's just something about this, usually I'd just think those shells were boring but I like the way they look lighted and the sky in the back is great
great texture. great focus on the whole length of the stalk.
I prob would have ripped out the smaller corn plant thing just to the left of the main one. But its still a great image
Very dynamic! Great pic! My only complaint is it looks like you dragged the center of the levels to far to one side causing some flattened colors in the sky and background grass.
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