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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165. Teal and Orange

A winding road north of Montreal, Québec, Canada
photo by Petunia-Rivers
website - https://www.reddit.com/user/Petunia-Rivers/
original image - https://i.redd.it/foso4l8ieji21.jpg

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I usually don't like too radical color grading (unless I do it), but this photo is an exception. It found it on reddit's I Took A Photo. It's the classic, overused teal-and-orange color scheme, and I love it anyway. The road so oversaturated that it actually turned teal somehow looks great. The shallow depth-of-field also looks great. It's just one of those photos that shoud be unremarkable, but it just happens to strike you the right way. But I agree with one of the reddit commenters, it was missing a point of interest. Hence the snail. So it's a composit.

Unfortunatelly, it had a terrible vignette that I had to get rid of. I also darkened the whole things while I was at it.

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134. Sometimes, the Monochrome Just Works

‘Mysterious’ - England, UK
photo by Danis Lou
website - https://unsplash.com/@danislou
original image - https://unsplash.com/photos/Lc2EIgwh1RA

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...as much as I like to complain about it. Admittedly, there is a hint of other colors there, but it's all tinted green.

The only thing I did was dial-in the blacks.

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102. Scotland Is Still Green

Quiraing, eastern face of Meall na Suiramach, Isle of Skye, Scotland, UK
photo by Andrew Ridley
website - https://www.aridleyphotography.com/
original image - https://unsplash.com/photos/Kt5hRENuotI

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And foggy. Isle of Skye again.

Here I darkened the clouds to bring out more detail in them.

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76. Mirage

‘Hwy 285, Mile Marker 362’ - Highway 285 (‘Death Highway’), New Mexico, USA
photo by Mike Hawkins
website - https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelshawkins/
original image - https://live.staticflickr.com/7858/33648791528_f7190e9639_4k.jpg

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Grab your popcorn. You know what I'm talking about, countless movies started with a scene like this, with a car slowly appearing from the distant mirage. So I added one in.

So this is obviously a composit. I also boosted the colors and the sharpness.

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64. Yes, I Know It's Not There

’Sunbeam’ - Elephant trunk tornado near Milnesand, New Mexico, USA
photo by Marco Rank
website - https://marcorank.com/
original image - https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-CbWBBq4/4/X3/i-CbWBBq4-X3.jpg

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So, this photo is titled 'Sunbeam,' and curiously, there's no sunbeam there. That's because I removed it, as you can see on the comparison gizmo below. This is by far the best photo of a tornado that I found floating around, and while I understand that the sunbeam and the little rainbow are the spice which just happened to be in the right place at the right time, the reason I like the photo is the tornado itself, and I feel that the sunbeam takes away from it.

I also darkened the image to emphasize the storm (well, the super-cell), and sharpened it.

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53. Mountains with Funny Names

Sgurr nan Gillean, Am Basteir, Sgurr a Bhasteir, Sligachan, Isle of Skye, Scotland, UK
photo by Manuel Martin
website - https://www.manuelmartinphotography.com/
original image - https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/sgurr-nan-gillean-am-basteir-sgurr-a-bhasteir-royalty-free-image/180921875/
Windows 10 Spotlight version - https://windows10spotlight.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/307f1cc8e3b2a73e2198305404fa57dc.jpg

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Well, at least funny to me. It's Gaelic if I'm not mistaken. A very calming photo, and the road really gives it depth and draws you in.

Just did the basic housekeeping.

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23. Orange Is the New Black

Road in northern Iceland
photo by Luke Peelgrane
website - https://www.photobucketlist.com/
original image - https://i.redd.it/6bqum48c2v601.jpg

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I like roads. And I like the way this photo looks like it's black and white, with only the color orange allowed. Great atmosphere as well.

I had a lot of work here, though. There was an awful vignette to be removed, lot of sharpening artefacts, and what's even worse, halos caused by the overuse of the clarity slider in Lightroom (I guess). I'll talk about this in future posts, as that's another pet peeve. Also fixed the contrast and the general colors.

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