Let’s play #52

[Ben Egbert]

To spice things up, we are requesting that everyone "Play" with the Let's Play photo. Please don't use your normal processing steps as that's not playing, that's just your normal processing. The goal here in this week’s Let's Play is to see just how different from the original photo you can make your edit. So go Play!


Show us how you would render it and please explain the steps taken to get that rendering.

The embedded image is a small jpg of the raw, but use the DNG file attached below for rework.

Download the following attached dng to be able to Play with the Raw image.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Here is my attempt. Roughly here is what I did.

In ACR, used the perspective tool to fix it so both buildings don't lean. This also forced part of the crop. More done later.
Did basic corrections on luminosity, contrast etc. to taste. Ignored the sky entirely since I was going to replace it anyway.
In PS, used Topaz Adjust to boost color and micro contrast to punch up the colors on the cars as they are the main subject.
Cloned out the people as well as the part of the pole obstructing the building.
Cropped a bit more from the left.
That left a small triangle in the bottom left between the road and the pavement. Cloned that out.
Used Orton effect but reduced the opacity to around 28% as to not overdo it.
Finally did the sky replacement.

Not sure if this would be normal processing or playing. Tried a few different looks but it was doing more for the sake of doing that making the image look any better.

Here is the final result.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Good one Jameel. Lots of pop here.

 

[JimFox]

I am liking Jameel's entry here too. It looks really cool with the extra pop.

 

[Ben Egbert]

My entry this week.

In ACR
Set lens correction
WB> as shot
Exposure +25
Cont +5
Highlights -78
Shadow +53
Whites +8
Blacks -18
All other sliders zero
In perspective, Vertical -49 then crop

In photoshop
Mark darkest and lightest points using threshold.
In curves set BP at 5,5,5 WP at 250,250,250
Run Topaz exposure
Run Topaz Studio2, Clarity, Dehaze, Detail at 30%
Run Topaz Studio Liquify II
Reset BP and WP.

 

[AlanLichty]

My workflow:

In Lighigtroom:
cropped the sky to eliminate the blown out clouds
cleaned up the perspective -49 vertical
Clarity +29
Texture +12
Highlights -80
shadows +53
Whites +63
blacks +52

In Photoshop:
Topaz ReStyle to remap the colors using a preset named Paris at Twilight
Topaz Studio - tweaked the colors a bit more for saturation and luminosity

 

[Ben Egbert]

Another good one Alan

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Interesting takes Ben and Alan. Enjoying it.

 

[Ben Egbert]

We need more entries this week.