Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Please download the image and edit it any way that you wish. Black and white conversions, color shifts, composites, alterations, filters are all acceptable. When you have finished with your edit, post it in this thread. Edits will be accepted until 9 pm on Thursday. At that point we will begin voting. Thank you for your support of this weekly challenge.

A dng file is below the jpg.

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The below is a dng file
Attached file:
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DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Just one for fun, Linda -

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ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

This was a tough one because of that cloud separating the mountains from the town below. Almost as if there were two photos. One above the cloud, the other below it. So I softened the image a bit and cropped it. Hope you like it.
Erich

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Snap Shot Loc: California

Fantastic images Linda! I have a slice of rock from a gem show that looks exactly like the sky in your second image!
Great work!

rborud Loc: Minnesota

Linda here is a bit of effort, RBorud

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artBob Loc: Near Chicago

Ahhhhhhhh......

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Anvil Loc: Loveland, CO

Here is my version. I usually don't crop much, in these exercises, if I crop at all. I assume the photographer had something in mind when the photo was first composed, so I try to remain true to that. This one was not cropped.

I tried to eliminate most of the digital noise, but not all of it. I liked a certain amount of it in the sky and the fog layer. I liked the graininess where the upper (bright) area of the fog layer meets the lower (dark) area. Perhaps it's just my eyes playing tricks, but that seemed to give that area of the photo a subtle, 3D effect.

I wanted the ground to remain dark, yet I wanted detail. I did not want the ground to be the subject of the photo -- that is the fog's job. By applying a subtle matte finish, I think I got the darkness I wanted, while preventing the ground from taking over.

I also wanted the sky to be a little warmer, with a brightening, at the top, to suggest that the sun would, eventually, burn off the fog. I left the blue sky area in, to enhance the suggestion.

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SpyderJan Loc: New Smyrna Beach. FL

Nice one to work with Linda. Trying out the new Luminar 3 for the edit of the .dng file.

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ediesaul

Lovely colors and composition, LFM!

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Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

I am very much enjoying the variety of edits and vision. Thank you all!

🤗

R.G. Loc: Scotland

If I can't think of anything imaginative I'll just try to beautify.

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AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

Well, here's mine. There seems to be a lot of grain here, and I don't know how to do anything with that. Would someone enlighten me, please. I really liked the lavender look, so I did enhance that a bit. I thought about cropping some of the bottom because I felt like the mountains and the sky were the stars of the image. However, I did like the large trees and hated to lose them.

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R.G. Loc: Scotland

The grain is more noticeable in some areas than in others. If you tackled the grain (which you can think of as extreme noise) globally, you would have to use so much denoise that the whole image would be too soft. However, if you select the area/s where the grain is most noticeable (which in this case is the sky down to the top of the mountain) you can give it more extreme adjustments without losing all sharpness and detail in the image as a whole.

My sky adjustments were to go left with the Clarity slider (I used quite a lot of Contrast globally) and be quite aggressive with the denoise and going left with the Sharpen slider. The clouds lose some of their edge definition, but that's not a big deal because soft skies don't look wrong. If you give the whole image sharpening in the Details section you may have to come back to the sky selection and go even more left with the Sharpen slider. The two most powerful adjustments are the negative Clarity and the negative Sharpen, so they have to be done cautiously and with restraint. Too much and you'll end up with a mushy or a too flat look to the sky.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

Thanks. I don't think I have ever moved Clarity to the left!!!!!

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Adding to R.G.'s comments, using Nik Dfine (a noise reducer application) or PS Elements' noise reduction filter, I always do as separate layer. That way I can remove from one area while masking the change from others. Skies are probably where I would most often apply noise reduction.