Before and After #432 - Landscape Edition

Hi everyone -

I've been recruited to set off the next Before and After - since I'm a landscape shooter, that's what Ill post. Have fun, let's see what you've got.

The game will last 7 Days and whoever can produce the best edited image (as judged by me) will be picked and it'll be their turn to post their unedited picture for all of us to take a crack at.

The participants must have their "Image Editing OK" turned on and they must provide at least a simple breakdown of how they edited the image, some entrants are a little vague on this point, please give us all details so we can learn and share tips. For instance if you use the unsharp mask tool or Smart Sharpen, provide us with the adjustments you used so others can try them out.

You can post multiple images, but the first image you post will be the one that is judged - all other images will be considered for knowledge and tip use only.
Feel free to comment and/or ask questions at any time. This is a good competition for learning new methods, so let's make it a bit more dynamic. I will be judging edits, not comments. Feel free to comment on the original image as well.

If you happen to be the winner of the game please start the next one with the title of the game and the following number. For example…the next game should read "Before & After #432."

Game ends TUESDAY JULY 17th, 2012 at 5:00PM CST

Adding the raw file is not a requirement. If you win a comp. and would like to post just the jpg that is fine--not everyone shoots raw or uses more complex raw editing software.

I didnt want to upload a junk file to see if you could turn it around but I didnt want to upload a perfect file to make it too easy on you either so here is what I selected. Keep in mind that since Im a landscape shooter and I didnt upload a junk file, I would appreciate it if everyone would use the image for the purposes of this challenge ONLY.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

Removed dust specks, leveled horizon, used one grad filter for sky (darken) and one for ground (lighten slightly), boosted clarity and vibrance. All that in ACR. Then in PS I ran a High Pass filter on a dup layer in Soft Light mode, flattened, then a LAB color boost on a dup layer and flattened.

Did a "shadow/highlight" adjustment - (Increasing the shadows by 20% the highlights by 30% and the midtone contrast by 20%.) Leveled the horizon of the water in the left corner. Cloned out dust marks. Added a vibrance layer increasing the vibrance by 50% and the saturation by 10%. Sharpened using a highpass filter with a radius of 1.

Did some grad filters with added saturation to the sky as long as bringing down the highlights. Added some contrast and played with the curves. Did a tad of noise reduction and then sharpening. Last i took out some visible dust in the sky and added saturation the trees.

Straighten the horizon, grad filter the sky. add contrast, exposure, blacks, clarity, vibrance (lowered saturation in response). Just used basic sharpening in lightroom...

wow that looked very soft uploaded....

Reminder - challenge ends when I get home from work tonight. Thanks for the submissions so far - anyone else?

Trying a B&W version...

Thanks for playing everyone - some nice work here.

Fricks, I personally like your edit the best so it looks like it's up to you to create challenge #433.

Alright thanks will be posted later tonight.

Wow, this is really something.