200. Another Big Round Number

‘Sunrise at the Ghost Town of Old Paria’ - Paria, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA
photo by John Fowler
website - https://www.flickr.com/photos/snowpeak/
original image - https://unsplash.com/photos/5bv-_tIwHFk

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Beautiful lighting and combination of colors. But there was something strange about the sky - there were some strange colors and halos where it met the cliffs. Possibly the clouds were added in later, or maybe it was just a result of a long exposure.

Whatever the case, I decided to do a sky replacement of my own to remove the artefacts. So now it's definitely a composit. I really liked the original atmosphere, so I tried to stay true to it as much as possible - which was not easy. I also darkened the whole thing.

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188. It's Just a Beach

‘If Only We Could Turn Back Time’ - Piha beach, Auckland Region, New Zealand
photo by Anna Kwa
website - https://www.instagram.com/anna_kwa/
original image - https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50115566652_99cd219e03_6k.jpg

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But it's also an amazing composition. Enjoy the subtle waves in the foreground.

I removed some people and a pretty bad halos above the rocks.

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153. Bumpy and Orange

Buckskin Gulch, Kanab, Utah, USA
photo by TheVincibleIronMan
website - https://www.reddit.com/user/TheVincibleIronMan
original image - https://i.imgur.com/E0isGOS.jpg

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Wonderfull sculptural quality to this. Nature has us humans beat. And you can't go wrong with complimentary colors, it's in the name.

I only cleaned-up some artefacts here, including some halos where the cliffs meet the sky.

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148. Na-Na-Na-Na-Na

Scenic sunrise over Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming, USA
photo by Anthony Heflin
website - https://www.instagram.com/anthony_heflin_photography/
original image - https://www.dreamstime.com/scenic-sunrise-over-wyoming-s-devils-tower-national-monument-warm-sunset-light-filters-across-meadow-gravel-road-below-image124973134

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Another land feature made famous by a... well, feature - Close Encounters of the Third Kind. A nice dramatic photo with a path that leads your eyes right to the Devils Tower.

The colors were too sugary for my taste, so I limited them somewhat, mostly by getting rid of the pinks. At least the clouds don't look like cotton candy any more. There was also a halo around the tower, got rid of that.

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123. Painted Clouds

‘Green Mountains and Clouds’ - Monte Altissimo di Nago, Monte Baldo, Garda Mountains, Italy
photo by Cristina Gottardi
website - https://www.instagram.com/cristinagottardi/
original image - https://unsplash.com/photos/wndpWTiDuT0

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That long line of distant clouds makes this one. Not that the vista isn't impressive by itself. But I wonder if those clouds were there to start with - there is a pretty bad white edge around the mountains, which indicates either sky replacement, or oversharpening of the image. I can't really say, but i think that the clouds are the original ones.

So I fixed the white edge, and removed some of the orange tint - after all, the photo is titled 'Green Mountains and Clouds.'

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105. That's a Big Bird!

‘Twilight at Hawksbill Crag’ - Ozark National Forest, Arkansas, USA
photo by Matt MacPherson
website - https://mattmacpherson.com/
original image - https://mattmacpherson.com/ark001.jpg

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But it's not yellow. I think I see some halos around it and the trees, but there's real mist behind, so I left them alone.

I only gave the colors more oomph.

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85. Windswept

‘Escape’ - Twistleton Scar, Yorkshire Dales National Park, Yorkshire, England, UK
photo by Pete Rowbottom
website - https://peterowbottom.net/
original image - https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51100459436_5816a2b8bc_k.jpg

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It's so windy there that the trees are permanently bent. Wonderful atmosphere and colors. This is the kind of Magic Hour lighting that I like.

I removed some halos, darkened and sharpened the image a bit.

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83. Save the Halos for the Angels

‘Polar Night’ - Segla, Senja island, Norway
photo by Fabian Fortmann
website - https://www.flickr.com/photos/fabianf_/
original image - https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50743417653_fb8ab86815_6k.jpg

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And I'll bore you with my peeves some more. This one had some ugly halos around the mountain. Now, they could have been actual wisps of mist, but they looked too regular to me.

So I said, 'To hell with it,' and removed them. While at it, I also fixed the contrast and got rid of the guy in the yellow jacket. People quite often shoot other people in the foreground here - just do a search for 'Segla' and look at various examples - but I think it takes away from the size of the mountain, and makes it look like some rocky protrusion instead. Much better to contrast it to the settlement on the left to get the true sense of scale.

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