I'm a poorly lit landscape photo, please Photoshop me!

OK, I have attached a photo that I took this afternoon with my Canon 10-22. It's a fair photo with average composition that just BEGS for some post processing.

So photoshoppers, I am interested in multiple takes on what should constitute the finished product of the file I have attached. Please explain how you accomplished what you did and why you think it makes the photo better.

I think the diversity of opinions here could prove very interesting! I hope you participate!

http://www.sendspace.c​om/file/gbubpq

How about posting a jpeg so we can see what it looks like before downloading the raw.

Sure

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Some of my main steps:

• Two "exposures" in ACR, one for sky, one for shadows.
  
• Shadow/highlight filter to open shadows further.
  
• Selective color adjustment layer for blue in sky.
  
• Red photo filter for red in sky.
  
• Paint on blank layer in soft light mode for green grass.
  
• Noiseware.

I tried to keep it a little more photographic - for a couple of reasons. First, this computer is loaded with only Elements 2.0, so some of PS's more elaborate features are unavalaibel. Second, I think that Peano gave you the best look possible at "taking it to the limit", so I thought I would dial my try down a bit.

Mostly just burning and dodging. The most significan change came when I selected (magic wand) the dark areas, about 50 pixel feather, duplicated the darks and the set the blend mode to screen.

Just that quck "click, feather, copy, screen" series of steps goes a long way to recovering shadows in just about any shot.

My 2¢

Rad

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I'd delete it.

Here's mine:

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That shots crying out for some serious storm clouds. Remember that location the next time you get a storm. Just take along some concrete blocks to hold the tripod down.

cdifoto wrote in post #6737201
I'd delete it.

LOL...nothing like getting to the point

cdifoto wrote in post #6737201
I'd delete it.

I don't necessarily disagree. I was anxious with the idea for this thread and unfortunately this noisy photo was the most generic one I had.

I enjoyed everyone's participation! Very unique perspectives.

cdifoto, if you have a clearer .RAW that you think would be a better fit for this please post it.

After some shadow and highlight and color adjustments, I ran the Midnight Sepia action, crop.

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Ha! I love that view of the Quabbin!

There are lots of ways to "fix" it. Here's just another:

Post #9:
Airport runway shoot

Adjustment Layers for local changes. Note what's said in the "Advanced Tip".
Just make the change, click on the mask in the Layers Palette & Edit> Fill with black, & paint in the image, not the mask, with a white brush to just put the change where you want it.

Collin85 wrote in post #6737332
Here's mine:

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I like the way that your edit brought out the details in the distant trees, even the ones on the island. However, I think that the foreground should have been treated a bit differently than the background so that the contrast is not as bold. My thought behind this suggestion is that it might help to emphasize the areas that really stand to benefit the most from your editing. Your treatment of the water and sky color is probably the closes to being realistic, but it almost seems to make the scene look overcast.

I am interested in trying out your editing scheme on some of my images if you would be willing to share in general terms what you did.

My take on it, with a bit of cropping on top ... otherwise I tried to retain the original image ...
the sky was washed out so worked on those colours just a bit.
also liked the light/highlight on the hills so didn't work too much to bring up foreground colour/brightness.
Really wanted to straighten the picture, but didn't.

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