A WWII battle reenactment for Veteran's Day in Waxahachie, Texas. This event has become a yearly event for the Flickr meetup group I belong to. We don uniforms and are allowed to accompany the units in the battle as "press corps". The reenactment groups love getting all the photos of themselves in action and we get some fantastic photo ops. This is the third time we've attended this event and the second time we've been embedded with the reenactment units. I'm starting to know a lot of faces now and a even a few names.
I know from the comments that some folks will be curious what the out of the camera shot looked like and what I did to achieve this look. Here's what the output from Canon DPP looked like after making the usual tweaks to the RAW file.
My editing steps:
-Adjust and convert to JPG with Canon DPP
-Open in Corel PaintShop Pro X2
-Tilt correction
-Noise reduction w/ Topaz Denoise
-Modest use of Topaz adjust to bring out some detail from the smoke.
-Crop
-Convert to BW with Nik Silver Efex
-color treatment in virtual photographer, using the "Orange Crush" preset (This is when the magic happened!)
-Resize
-Sharpen
Post-challenge notes:
Wow! I have never had an entry start off and stay so strong! Maybe my wife has been slipping something in my coffee. I kept looking at this all week, not believing this was my own entry!
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 51 Avg (all users): 7.6791 Avg (commenters): 9.0667 Avg (participants): 6.3333 Avg (non-participants): 7.8773 Views since voting: 9626 Views during voting: 452 Votes: 187 Comments: 90 Favorites: 24 (view)
I don't want this to come out the wrong way... I've not entered a challenge in a long time, but this seems to be one of the reasons why... Although the image is amazing, it is a great copy and a great edit. I don't think that the editing preserved the "image integrity." In fact the editing to me added an element that was not in the photo to begin with. I mean if anyone can look at the original and say 'I see fire in it', or looked at the post image and say, 'I see smoke in it', I will withdraw this post and apologize most profusely. Had this been advanced editing I wouldn't have as much problem (although still some). To me the editing didn't just change the color of the smoke, it changed it into fire which was not there originally. As I look at the comments the vast majority talk about either the editing or the post-processing of the image. But fantastic image outcome.
I did create a thread on the challenge outcome forum for this discussion, so don't reply here.
This photo reminds me of a quote by war photographer james nachtway
"why photograph war? is it possible to put an end to a form of human behavior which has existed through history, by means of photography? the the proportions of that notion seem ridiculous out of balance yet that very idea has motivated me"
Great shot and edit. I was a little upset to see this category before going to the Battle of Bulge reenactment on Dec 11th in Bastogne. Maybe I can squeeze some of the photos into a different category. Again, awesome photo.
Awww, so there wasn't an actual firefight going on? Ah well, still a really good shot and well deserving of a front-page finish. Huge congats on the blue Steve! :-)
Wow, Steve. Awesome score! Well done. Congrats on the new PB! Saw this and thought 'wow.'
Did you edit for this effect? Or was it from tinkering that you realised the potential?
It's excellent.
Congratulations Steve, fantastic shot. Feels like a real photojournalist shot from a battle. You should post this one around, I'm sure it will win many awards.
I love this shot. And it goes to show what an eye and imagination can do in PP. Incredible job taking it from a descent pic to a blue ribbon. I showed my friend the before and after and the reaction was "holy Sh..." haha. Well done.
My first thought was "How in the world was this photographer in a place to capture this scene"? Excellent, excellent. Congrats on the blue and your new PB.
huge congrats on the excellent image and the well deserved blue ribbon!!!
what is that "orange crush" thing? I assume it's a safe editing tool under basic rules since Scalvert passed it (he sounds like he has), and it would be great to know more about it.
Absolutely brilliant Steve! Congrats on a very well deserved blue. You took a good shot that I would have given a 5 or 6 for and through your PP skills produced a shot that I gave and 8 for. You must feel pretty good getting the Blue on a challenge you suggested. Well done!
Just another day at the office
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