The Adventures of A Commercial Photographer And Filmmaker
Finally! The day has come to announce the winners of my second photoshop retouching contest (see the original post here). Thanks again to the Nik Software Team for donating our great prizes and for being judges in the contest. Remember, the grand prize winner will receive Nik Software’s “Complete Collection Ultimate Edition” which is their bundle of all 6 of their award-winning photographic plug-ins that work in Photoshop, Lightroom, and Aperture. $599.95 suggested retail price. The two honorable mentions will not walk away empty-handed. They will have their choice of any 1 Nik product!
Thanks again to everyone that entered. I received some fantastic and imaginative entries. Your support of this contest ensures that we will have bigger and better contests with more awesome prizes in the future. And now, here are your winners…
THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Nathan Smith - www.smithfineart.com
Nik Product/Effect used: Color Efex Pro > Graduated User Defined +Bleach Bypass +Tonal Contrast + Cross Processing (T04)
“We liked this one due to filter usage and the clean masking of Nora.” – Nik Judges
I think this entry was definitely one of the strongest images with the post-apocolypse theme. I like the blurred buildings int he background and the setting sun, created a great sense of depth. His color treatment looks nice and consistent throughout.
THE HONORABLE MENTIONS
#1 Filip Osowski –
Nik Product/Effect used: Color Efex Pro > Bleach Bypass
“Loved the creativity of this one. Tyler (our creative manager) loved the circular ring around Nora while the attention to gaming detail had me hooked.” – Nik Judges
Filip entered in the last retouching contest and made runner-up before. He does have some serious talent.
#2 Brent Airey
Nik Product/Effect used: Color Efex Pro > Colorize
“Just really clean and we liked the light source mimicking what you [Douglas Sonders] did in the original. Got dinged a little because it didn’t look “post-apocolyptic” enough (of course I pointed out that the snow might represent ‘nuclear winter.’)” – Nik Judges
This is clean and I thought he did a great job dropping her in the snow and creating a seamless color treatment.
OTHER GREAT ENTRIES WORTH SHARING
I loved the drop-ins, environments, and custom colors people used to create new images. Really fun to see how different people creatively deal with the same starting photo.
Entry by Franziska Hennig. This one is so fun. She created an entire "magical" scene.
Entry by Israel Groveman (http://www.israeldavidgroveman.com). How I love zombies. This was a really great entry.
Entry by Fabiano Reani
Entry by Geoffrey Gilson (www.geoffreygilson.net) Love the texture and mud effects. Nice text too!
Entry by Vithaya Phongsavan (www.vithayaphotography.com) Nice camera drop-in!
Entry By Jeremy Korwek (www.tropikalstudios.com)
"Peace Offering" Entry by Christopher Wray (www.chriswray.net)
Entry by Lee Brown www.twitter.com/adaynotwasted
Entry by Lauricio I
Entry by Lorimar Esque
LOL yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssss I love love love love the first one. Takes me back to the hours and hours spent playing FF7… and 8, 9, 10..
Thanks
My buddy said her hair reminded her of Cloud from FF 7, and then I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, lol. Based the battle system on FF XIII.
How do you not put the person who won first? Very weird, it’s hidden below the honorable mentions. Oh well, at least you put the one first who SHOULD HAVE WON.
BTW, the images should be clickable to view a larger version.
Thought they were. Ill fix that later today
WOOHOO!! I won! Thanks for the contest.. it was fun. I rarely get to have fun and indulge in creating fantasy type scenes most the time. Might have to make that a personal project now!
I actually had a crack at this but couldn’t find the time to finish it!
Well done everyone
[...] Here are the before and after for my second contest submission, which again got a mention in the finals. Images of model Nora Sommerkamp are copyright Douglas Sonders Photography. All other added [...]
[...] has come again kids for another fun retouching contest. You may recall my last couple of contests (here & here). This one I am holding in honor of my beloved Boxer, Winston Churchill, who I had to [...]