182. Purplish-magenta

Huangshan Mountains (Yellow Mountains), Anhui province, China
photo by Pavel Dvořák Jr.
website - https://www.flickr.com/photos/41709344@N07/
original image - https://wiki-travel.com.vn/Uploads/picture/NguyenBinhVTV-155405105401-Huangshan.jpg
Windows 10 Spotlight version - https://windows10spotlight.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/73098dd6129c9024ea6dc6ed06d53602.jpg

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This was a difficult one. I ran into it in Windows 10 Spotlight, and I immediatelly liked it, especially the purplish-magenta tint, but it was obviously taken too far - so-much-so that it started looking airbrushed. I wanted a hint of those colors, but still somewhat plausible. The thing is, it was difficult to track down the original photo - apparently, the photographer took several of them in a short span of time (the clouds and the canopies move a bit between them), and they each came cropped slightly differently. So this is a composit of several of them.

Then I made the colors similar to Windows 10 Spotlight ones, only not so drastic.

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168. IRL Cartoon

‘The Winding Road of Tianmen Mountain National Park (Zhangjiajie) in Clouds Mist’ - Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, Hunan Province, China
photo by Thongchai Sirajinda
website - https://www.facebook.com/thongchai.si/
original image - https://res.cloudinary.com/enchanting/image/upload/v1/artemis-mdm/a7872cff-c871-423b-a1de-8feea9e01383.jpg

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This looks like something straight out of a cartoon. If it was in the desert, I'd expect to see Wile E. Coyote an Road Runner speeding along. But I do like the greens of the lush vegetation.

I reframed the photo to something I think is a better composition, removed some lens reflections, and deepened the aforementioned greens.

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140. I'm Felling Blue

‘Evening with Poplars’ - Inner Mongolia region, China
photo by neko_ramen
website - https://www.reddit.com/user/neko_ramen
original image - https://i.redd.it/dnsa5283gb861.jpg

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Clean and calming.

I removed an ugly vignette, replaced the moon with something cleaner, and fixed the general levels.

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127. Crazy Valley...

Yili, Apricot Valley, Xinyuan County, China
photo by Unknown
website - N/A
original image - http://img.mm4000.com/file/c/96/d2f53a2d4b.jpg

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...and some horses. This is the famous Apricot Valley in China. Unfortunately, I couldn't source the photo, but it looked too good to skip. Beautiful lighting and composition.

As per usual, I darkened and sharpened the image so that it works better as wallpaper (at least for my taste).

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112. Not Really Visible From Space

Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China, Beijing Huairou District, China
photo by aphotostory
website - https://windows10spotlight.com/images/bbd93817073235c282534792b818b9af
original image - https://cdn2.veltra.com/ptr/20191127093710_1172714372_13254_0.jpg
Windows 10 Spotlight version - https://windows10spotlight.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/bbd93817073235c282534792b818b9af.jpg

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Great backlight that really gives shape and texture to the hills. Great colors, too. And the subject, while not visible from space as mentioned in the title, is still really really impressive.

I reframed the photo to lose the Sun (it was drawing away the attention a little too much in my opinion), and darkened the shadows, which is more in line with the sunrise (I think it's the sunrise - it is kind of yellowish).

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94. Pandora

Tianzi Mountains, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, Hunan Province, China
photo by aphotostory
website - https://windows10spotlight.com/images/aa4ade866c6252ffb605e120e7fb66b4
original image - https://resources.travellocal.com/location/f4493a0b-f079-4e6e-a80c-00afa9dd72a8-Zhangjiajie_2_SS_large.jpg
Windows 10 Spotlight version - https://windows10spotlight.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/aa4ade866c6252ffb605e120e7fb66b4.jpg

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Real life inspiration for the floating mountains in Avatar. Yet another photo where I used the Windows 10 Spotight version as the starting point, as their tighter cropping focuses better on the subject I think.

Other than that, only basic adjustments.

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