Raw Challenge #1

We are still at challenge #1, so please hold on with another image, I hope more people will try their skills, so it will not end with your photo only.
And still, why do you post your "base", let people decide for themselves how they want it to look .

Well you asked for it but indeed I will get it down for you, sorry

I uploaded the base since someone can see if it's interesting or not so that they don't need to download a 10mb file without knowing what they will get.

If you open it in a raw converter you get to see the file with the cameras preset so why not?

There is no such thing as a straight copy of a RAW photo because some processing has to be done to see an image at all, and each RAW converter has different default settings.

I think piotro made it clear what the challenge was about. I will have a go now.

Ok, heres my effort

[IMG]http://i43.tinypic.com/1y0ooz.jpg[/IMG]

Reduced highlights, darks, clarity, vibrance and saturation and increased shadows slightly in Adobe camera raw - then opened in photoshop twiddled with shadows and highlights in a copied layer to get detail in bricks then set layer mode to darken@70%ish. Flattened, noise reduction, smart sharpened, unsharp mask - then converted to a b&w with default selected.

Not a great deal to work with lol, but I had a go

ok, i have opened the image in adobe cs4. I have removed all the colour from the image with the saturation and colour sliders but kept a subtle hint of some colour in there as to emphersise the lighting etc, simple 5 minute job but effective thats what i wanted to achive

Not the most inspring of photos, to be honest.

This is produced with Sikypix and adjustments too numerous to mention unless anyone is really interested:

[IMG]http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr298/lime501/IMGP2410.jpg[/IMG]

Nice to see some uploads .
I can agree with you saying this RAW wasn't too challenging, but I had nothing bad enough under my hands to start it off with, hopefully next ones will be better.
Proposition is, after challenge ends, each of the participants + person who submitted RAW indicates the best work and secondary best (backup ) in their opinion (but don't point itself ). In case of tie the one with most of 'secondary' wins, as a last resort person who submitted RAW has last word. "Winner" in reward will try to submit another RAW for next challenge. I hope you are ok with this.

PhotoShop Elements 4 for Mac - Crop, desaturate, add contrast, sharpen 500%, posterize to 4 shades, sharpen again 100%, clone out most of the bright spots leaving the the overhead light.

It's diffficult to make much out of this shot as it is un-interesting to start with.
I came up with this:

[IMG]http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/ww354/kmjh62/IMGP2410-Edit.jpg[/IMG]

I like the rain in the light so:
[IMG]http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv328/MGraley/my2410smalltry1.jpg[/IMG]

Hi Carl - slightly off the subject but I see you refer to a PEF Viewer. I have recently started using RAW/PEF and I would love a full screen viewer so I could quickly dispose of those photos I did not wish to retain.
I can do this to a certain extent 'in camera' but for the rest it is a bit arduous to load individual PEF photos into Elements 7 and than cancel the unsatisfactory ones and go into my photos to delete!
There may be an obvious solution eg the Viewer you refer to. What's it's full name, how do I get it and does it cost money!!!
Cheers
John

Kenty, Pentax provides RAW browser (called Pentax Photo Browser) and converter (Pentax Photo Labolatory)- free of charge . You can download them here:
http://www.pentax.jp/english/support/download_digital.html

Many thanks Piotro - will download it and see how it works.

Cheers

John

Irfanview is also a handy free viewer that can display PEF and DNG images (when a plugin is installed). Find it via Google.

Irfanview is what you need. Make it your default viewer.

http://www.irfanview.com/

Don't forget to load the plug-ins.

G

PS: Sorry, Iceblinker. Didn't see your reply.