This is a shot that can benefit from a lot of retouching (tonal, horizon, contrast, color, etc) but also lends itself to some creative digital playing. Have fun with it and do as you wish. No limit on the number of entries, no limits on what you do to the photo (other than it must still be recognizable in some form). The only rule that I will impose is to make this a REAL speed challenge. You only have until the end of 2005 (Pacific Standard Time) to complete the project. I will determine my favorite sometime after noon (PST) on Sunday, 1 Jan 2006. That gives you about 100 hours from the time I post this. Get busy!
I spent most of my time on this one cloning out the man made bits on the land, and removing the other boat. Then I built up a few adjustment layers to bring different tones to the various areas - trying for a late afternoon sunlight effect on a summer's day where the colour can be quite intense (a bit like you often see in postcards - big, bright overly saturated gunk ). Oh - and I straightened the horizon .
Here is a "I'm a bit bored right now" attempt...I deleted the boat behind it, changed its color, greened up the hills, removed the wires, and other stuff.
Here's my entry. I straightened the horizon, slight adjustment to highlight, midtone and shadow, increased the saturation, and finally cropped for a panoramic view. Slight sharpening before posting.
Well, we only had 3 entries for this challenge but all 3 were excellent. Perhaps it was the holidays, perhaps the short time given, or perhaps a subject nobody really wanted to fix...in any case, I hope the next challenge gets more participation. It was a hard decision as each entry had strong points that I liked.
MrPickles...I really liked the greens and shadows you got in the hills and the removal of useless background things.
FocusingOnFlorida....excellent idea with the panoramic crop, I really liked that.
Paul....I think you nailed the crisp, vibrancy of the waters. Coupled with the good job that you did cloning out backgrounds, I opted to choose your entry. Truth be told, I'd like to bring MrPickle's hills into your sky and water using Florida's panoramic crop.
Thanks for that Carl. A pity we only had a few entries, but I think you're right that the holiday season got in the way a bit. Hopefully, now that everyone's digested their turkeys (or whatever you eat over this period) there will be more entries for the next one.
Talking of which... I'll think of something over the next day or so and start a new challenge.