Good work GL author

wow, great job!!!! (excellent find)

Where's the Dragan effect in this? Sorry, not seeing it even in hi-res. There are several tuts out there, though some are better than others. Many ways to achieve the contest effect, author.

Sorry you don't see the effect. Perhaps your monitor needs calibrating, or a visit to your optometrist is in order.

The basic adjustments for a "Dragan effect," which is actually more of a "pseudo-HDR" effect achieved with Photoshop, are there. I suppose I could have just put a layer of generated noise on top and color tinted it green, but that really would not have achieved the definition and enhancement of features that a "Dragan" accomplishes.

Thanks for taking the time to comment, tho'!

in my opinion the dragan style, is not simply a sum of filters and adjustments, I think the choice of image is important to achieve a dramatic image and hard, and I think it is the case with his work

Good point, Zambrottix, but there are at least a couple of entries so far that don't really come close in quality or technical effect to a Dragan. That is just the way contests work...

But I must disagree, as Dragan himself has clearly stated that his effect is a result of adjustment layers for hue and saturation, along with selective sharpening, blurring, burn and dodge. The key is to start with a good quality photo, but in the end, it IS a sum of filters and adjustments. Dragan himself has admitted as much in several interviews, some of which are no longer available on the web, but which I have archived.

Here is one still available in which he discusses some of his attitudes:
http://www.bakmagazine.com/interviews/13/andrzej-dragan

I agree with the others on this one. It doesn't look like you did hardly anything to the photo.