Camera Raw Photo Processing Challenge

Question

No pressure, just a bit of fun here.  In a recent thread I posted a raw file to illustrate a sky color issue, and several people showed an interest in processing it into an image using techniques they often use.
Let's do it again, with a better image this time.
Imagine you've been contracted to do a shoot of a Dark Charcoal Mustang GT for a brochure.  You drive the car to a scenic spot on a pretty day, take some photos, and now you're back at your computer with the raw files.  Your goal is to produce the following:
A 2400 x 1600 pixel sRGB image that makes the car look great.
The image might have elements you want to remove, colors you want to improve, shapes you want to distort...  Do anything you want to try to make the car appealing - mild to wild!
I've posted a Canon EOS-40D raw file here:
http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/IMG_1728.zip
Open this image using Camera Raw, tweak it as you see fit, and post the 2400 x 1600 pixel result in this thread.
Have fun!
-Noel
P.S., here's my result.  You might want to wait until you finish until you look at my interpretation.  Or look at it now and one-up me!  All in fun!

Answer 1

Noel Carboni wrote:
Rob Cole:  Also nice work!  You also chose a bit warmer color balance than I did, though not quite as warm as Yammer's.  However, in your case the sky and clouds seem to have less depth than I would like (e.g., the subject of my other thread on sky colors being a bit washed out).  And, like Yammer's, the tone curve in the darker parts almost hides all the tire detail, though as I mentioned above maybe this is actually a plus.  You did also bring out the depth of the reflections in the surface of the car nicely.  Looks like you distorted the image as I did to both level things a little and offset some of the perspective distortion.  P.S., I didn't figure out which buttons to press on your site to download the full resolution image.  But I was able to get it full screen, which was enough to judge quality.
I note that neither of you chose to use Content Aware Fill to get rid of the poles in the image. 
I don't mind "criticism", as long as I *think* we're looking at the same thing - the business of color management really grinds me though - lots of people think they understand what's supposed to happen, but that's not whats happening but they don't know it, and they think others are messed up or wrong, and maybe they are, but nobody really knows... - been there too many times.
My take on your take:
- I agree the sky needed more work, but also: the overexposure/clipping made it difficult to bring out cloud detail without it looking artificial (next time drop exposure by 1/3 or so when shooting).
- I like the pinch of warmth in the background (most of the clouds, and foliage), but not in the car nor the road .
- tire detail: agree again - I enhanced it a smidge in the next version (see link below).
- I applied default distortion correction (via profile-base lens corrections), but no perspsective adjustment - mostly just rotated it (counter-clockwise).- I'm waiting for Lr4 to remove telephone poles;-}
Note: The next version:
(additional enhancements done entirely in NX2)
You may need to clear your cache if you recently viewed the previous version.
http://robcole.com/Rob/Personal/Pictures/Pictures.cfm?embedSWF&startDir=2011&openDir=Misco r&openFile=IMG_1728.nxc.jpg