Critique my Photoshopped Photo - Old Truck

This is an old image I snapped a few months ago and discarded the original as being too blah.

I was bored this morning so tried to play around with it in photoshop this morning. I wanted to bring out the colouring/shading and focus more attention to the light of the truck than what the original exposure captured.

Do you like my photoshop upgrades? Too much? Something you'd have done differently?

My photoshop knowledge would be considered beginner. This was just a matter of adjuting the curvers, adding some red/yellow tints, some focused sharpening and a slight lens flare on the light, and giving the sky a darker cast rather than being so overexposed.

Original:

Interesting process, the colors are pretty cool, the darker sky can work but what sticks out is that the patches of sky showing through the windows and reflecting off the headlight rim don't match your adjusted sky!

That lens flare on the headlight doesn't say much, it comes across as a haze, so you might want to second-think that.

You don't have "image editing" turned on, but do ask if there was something someone might have done differently. I like old trucks, so tried something different. If my editing your photo offends you, let me know and I'll delete.

It's impossible to describe what I did, as much of my editing is like my cooking ... a little bit of that, pinch of something else, bit more of that, then stir it all together. I did edit out your fingers on the bumper but did not take your hand, jeans or camera out of the headlight rim.

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In Photoshop, try applying Unsharp Mask in the following amount:

Amount - 100
Radius - 50
Threshold - 0

ChasP505 wrote in post #11744974
In Photoshop, try applying Unsharp Mask in the following amount:

Amount - 100
Radius - 50
Threshold - 0

Pretty slick trick! It looks pretty darn good with this tip applied to the pic.

Out of curiousity, why does an unsharp mask so nicely clean up the lines of the photo? It was a bit deceiving when I read your post but, after trying it, the result was pleasant.

smackitsakic wrote in post #11745911
Pretty slick trick! It looks pretty darn good with this tip applied to the pic.

Out of curiousity, why does an unsharp mask so nicely clean up the lines of the photo? It was a bit deceiving when I read your post but, after trying it, the result was pleasant.

It's a technique that's been around for years. It brings out tonal contrast. You can put a little "punch" into an image by using the same USM technique, but Amount at 20-25. I thought the rusting truck needed a bit more to show the texture.