Thanks to Clara who tagged me to submit a photo this week.

Here is how this challenge works. I've posted an image, your challenge is to do whatever you want to it and post your results and some instruction as to what you did to get the effect you came up with.... IF you can remember all the steps you took.

Here is this week's image.



I was so enthused to be tagged that I forgot I don't really have the kind of interesting pictures suitable for this challenge. Almost all of mine are of my family and pets. This picture of the latest fire in my neighborhood will have to suffice. My New Year's resolution is to leave home and take some interesting photos so I'll be better prepared another time. There is no time limit to this challenge and you can post as many times as you want. Most important of all, "Have Fun!"

Coco. great photo to work with. I see from the rolling gallery MichelB has done an awesome job on it but not posted it yet. I'll see if I can come up with something.

http://www.prestophoto.com/photos/image/719689/21499

General processing:
- opened in ACR, see settings
- Hue/sat yellow+, blue,cyan, green -
- hihgpass sharpen
- new hue/sat adjustment layer with luminosity mask

- duplicate image
- duplicate size +20%
- Levels, texture
- flipped horizontally

added layer styles

Not feeling too creative so did a simple crop and B&W conversion w. slight contrast boost, black frame with a white stroke.

cocoscreatiivechallengebw.jpg (72.01 KiB) Viewed 1075 times

This is wonderful image to play with
What I did as best as I can remember:
converted to B/W using Graffi's lab convert 2, played around with contrast and levels
put a copy of the orginal on top added Graffi's layer mask and painted in black at a lower opacity to give just a hint of color on the lower half of image
painted with light on the smoke and flames to bring them out more..merged visible
duplicated that and ran the impressionist filter..damp translucent 2, lowered opacity to about 65%

I am NOT making light of the recent SoCal fires. But, when I saw this sign in a department store today (shoes) I thought immediately of this theme...

Creative-7.jpg (132.35 KiB) Viewed 1036 times

Got the C130 off the web; didn't do the best at attempting to create fire retardant

Rusty

Thanks Coco ... fun image to play with.



Bill

Wow you all are astounding! I can't believe what you can do!
Michel - okay, I want ACR really badly now. The clarity and the colors you pulled from this image are incredible. You made this small fire look terrifying then added a frame - and I love frames. Absolutely tremendous!
Kim - I think your b&w conversion is terrific! It gives the image the aged feel I "see" every time I pass by it. Also, I love that you added a great frame for your conversion.
Suzi - the colors of the flames in contrast to the muted colors of the foreground makes the image so much more dramatic. Also, the impressionist filter is such a great added effect.
Rusty - Believe me, we use humor to get through fire season (to think some people only have a rainy season) here. I wish I'd thought to include these firefighting tools
along with the photo. I enjoyed your submission.
Bill - Isn't that just what that garage needed? Perfect addition!. I wasn't sure if you'd add a car or a train.
Thanks to all of you for posting your wonderful efforts. I really enjoyed seeing each of them.

Thank you Coco for a great picture. 2007 was not kind to you guys in California.

Really creative stuff everyone