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New Zealand East Coast
Image by Abaconda
One of the many bays along the East Coast of New Zealand's North Island
Taupo Lake
Image by Abaconda
The sun setting over resting yacht on Lake Taupo.
East Coast
Image by Abaconda
One of the many bays along the East Coast Highway
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Barn bathed in sunlight - New Zealand
Image by theirishkiwi
I use Darktable to develop my RAW files, Darktable is free software (free as in speech not as in beer) which incorporates a lighttable to review you negatives or undeveloped RAW files and a darkroom for developing RAW files, hence the name, Darktable. I like it because the work-flow is simple and easy to follow as you don't get lost in lots of menus, you just work down a list of actions. All changes are non-destructive as well as plugin based so you can switch each on and off easily. Here is my original attempt. I think I much prefer this version which seems alot more natural and brighter too.
Here's what I did;
In Darktable
- Re-imported RAW file running the AMaZE algorithm on it to reduce CA
- Cropped
- set black and white points (stretched histogram making the whites whiter and blacks blacker)
- improved saturation
- sharpened
-correct white balance
In GIMP... I used burning to darken down the barn making it stand out a little more, resized for flickr and added a frame.
Challenge 82
Image by J M Ross
1. Added tonal contrast using Nik Software.
2. Dropped in new sky to add some clouds.
3. Added mist over the river. Created a new layer and filled with grey. Then ran the render clouds filter. Next I distorted the clouds using Free Transform. I set the blend mode to soft light and used a black layer mask to hide the effect. Using a white brush i painted the mist back over the surface of the river.
4. Next I added a slight vignette. I did this by merging all layers to a new layer and changing the blend mode to multiply. I made a rectangular selection close to the edge and used refine selection to feather it. Deleted the selection leaving the vignette.
5. On a new layer I created the travel stamp. I used Free transform to re-size and rotate it. I distressed it using a layer mask and painted black with a textured brush.
6. Added a stroke around the picture. Increased the canvas size and added a drop shadow. The drop shadow was created on a new layer below the main photo. I filled it with black and blurred it. Next I warped it to create the arch shape and moved in down. Reduced the opacity of the shadow to 50%.
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New Zealand Autumn
Image by Abaconda
New Zealand Autumn
