is there a RAW file? Where is it? Why then post a jpg if there's a RAW file to be had?

I'm sorry for missunderstanding or not paying enough attention to what was going on here.

Keep up there Tony!!!! Geeesh...gotta spell every thing out to you!!! :~)

Donald...did you use the RAW file to get that....I am guessing now based on how much artifacts I see in the end result.

Shoot me an e-mail and I will get the RAW file to you this evening.

Roman

Can someone email me the RAW file also.....mine is missouriphotos@comcast.net

Thanks in advance.
Tommy Brison

Here is my go at it. I was hoping the flower would bloom - like Tony asked, but since it didn't I also whacked it out of there.

Here's my version. The big challenge was noise (likely the result of ISO 1000) and as a result my focus was on salvaging and producing an image that is believable and (hopefully) close to how the scene appeared. Additional concerns were avoiding sharpening artifacts in the foreground, balancing light and color, and editing with an awareness of how the viewer's eye might most easily move around within the image.

Hey Guys,

Looks like we have some very different views on this particular image. It is very cool, actually. I went several different directions on this, making one very natural, but decided to go back at the drawing board and try something a bit different. Here is my trial at this. I hope that folks find it acceptable.

Ok....here is my edit....I didnt fight the noise much....its part of the picture...so I did some selective noise reduction in certian areas of the image.

Then just put it through my normal workflow.



Roman

What did everyone do i norder to keep all of the detail in the sky? This was the area I struggled most with.

James

Selection with wand (feathered)...and a minor curves adjustment.

I think it is good for us to look at our work and see what we would have done to improve. Looking at mine, I notice after comparing to the others that I ended up with too much magenta throughout. This is something I did not notice until others were posted, and something I do a lot... I need to get better at this. Usually I just sit on a shot for a few days after I think I am done, come back and look at it, and wonder what the heck I was thinking the first time... I am not sure how to tell if there is an overall cast to the shot- I guess just more practice but if anyone has suggestions...

For what it is worth, I will tell you what I did to bring out the clouds.

1. I used Thresholds to find the lightest portion of the sky, and set a Color Info marker there.

2. Using curves I set the end point for RG and B channels to be 245 for each color (RGB) at that point.

3. For each RGB channel I then found the point of the curve that corresponded to the blue in the sky, and made a very steep slope from the end of the curve to that point in the curve.

3. That made a strong definition between the clouds and the sky, but the rest of the shot was then strange. This is where it would have been great to have done the selection like Roman suggested, but I didn't think about that. Instead I created a sharp turn on each curve to try to even out the rest of the shot.

This might be a flawed workflow, but it is what I did. I would like to hear what others did.

Dave