I took this picture along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia last weekend. I have a special fondness for interesting trees and also fences, and this scene just caught my eye. I also have a desire for strong, bold colors & while I feel that my D40 does pretty well, I often feel the need to amp up the colors on my photos. So, here's my first attempt at this one. PLEASE tell me your HONEST opinions. I'll never learn if people aren't honest with me.
original
after
How I did it:
I actually followed a tutorial from pixeleyes.com called Pseudo HDR. Am I allowed to link to it? (I omitted a couple steps)
Here was the process:
Duplicate image & convert to smart object
Image -> Adjustments -> Shadow/Highlights and set shadow between 15-25 and Highlights 50-60. ~adjust the other controls to your liking. (Of course, I increased the color correction.)
Create a curve adjustment layer and adjust accordingly (i did not like the tutorials results for this, so I selected the preset -Medium Contrast
Oh, I used Photoshop CS3 Portable