An impossible image for me

[mikemeister_admin]

Hi all,
I've been following a thread in the colour theory forum and thought I might be interested in - just to bring home what is really possible.
You can read the start of the thread at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/colortheory/message/17569
- you will get nowhere with the .jpg file, you need the raw one (which is actually at http://colortheory.us/img_6507.cr2).

I think it is well worth following this and maybe somebody in the CM community can post some curves (although Dan has posted a .psd to show what he did) to show that it is possible for non-pros to achieve a result.

I attach the original, Dan's and John's renditions
- go on, be mad like me and try it. 
But after 2 hours I'm still not getting anywhere - time to cheat (where have I heard that before!) and see how Dan did it.

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Yes, this is an interesting image, and the results, particularly the last one, are astonishingly good.  I haven't given it a shot yet, but I encourage others to read the threads referenced above, and give it a try.