I think the best source images are the ones that allow the most creativity. I wound up taking this in several different directions before I was happy with the result. Even at that point, I had a few other ideas in mind! Thinking that you wanted to go bendy with it, in one iteration I warped the side bins in almost a complete circle.

For my final, I wanted to draw attention through the bins to the end wall. After layering in the basics and toning using various filters, I used Alien Skin Bokeh to create a 15% zoom effect, then used the same coordinates to darken the edges. It came at the sacrifice of some of the nice details along the way, but I feel it helped to draw attention to where I wanted it to go.

It’s always a pleasure to be part of this group of talented photographers. It has literally opened up new worlds of ideas for me, so thanks to all of you.

Having said that I morphed that perfect composition into this dizzy mess. Having done so many black and whites lately I was really excited to get ridiculous with color on some brackets. Right off the bat I decided to go with some crazy split toning and blur. I really liked the fractions on the shelves and wanted to keep them in focus. I tried several focus points…most likely should have gone with keeping the ladder crisp but not much of what I did on this edit makes much sense! I used Lightroom 3, Color Efex for Midnight, Tonal Contrast and Glamour Glow filters, and Focal Point 2.

All in all I had an absolute blast with this set and thanks for the opportunity to get weird with a such a great subject!

Before I started to work this set, I thought about what it was I was after. The answer: a photograph that looks like it could be a complex illustration created by the the like of the great Bert Munroy. I was after fine art, something that I’d love to see hanging on my wall. To get to this final image, I spent some time layering in bits of the original RAW images to get a rough canvas to work on. After that, I used a few Nik Color Efex 4 filters to sharpen up some details, as well as to create some deep shadows to create the depth that Photomatix Pro just cannot deliver. I was pretty happy with the outcome. Bob, these brackets rocked! Thanks for sharing them with us!!

I Ran all of the brackets through Photomatix Pro then decided that I wanted to highlight the rear shelves, using the “crib Shelves” on the side to lead your eyes to the rear of the scene. After Photomatix I brought the image into Photoshop, adjusted the levels, lens distortion and crop before doing some special T-Wiz tricks. The next steps were fun, some brushed in Topaz, OnOne and Phototune, followed by some Just enough darkness, Orton hears a who, and some contrast boost in certain areas. I finished the image up cloning out some spots I did not like and some NIK darken lighten center. I cannot wait to see what the other entries look like, thanks again Bob!