First time in Photoshop

[kpritch17]

This is the first time I've played around with photoshop. I'm just getting into photography, so I'm trying to focus on just the picture taking side of it right now, but I thought it would be fun to get my toes wet. Let me know what you guys think! Thanks!

Before:

After:

I think I may have gone a little overboard with the saturation, but I still like it

[gomer4378]

I like the color but you lost all of the detail in your clouds.

[cesarderio]

Bring some shadows back in so you get back some of your detail

[RichardHealy]

Grass is good. Sky looks too blue to me. But good first attempt well done. Hope to see more.

[tal_ninio]

A little "over cooked" for me...
I prefer the understatement of the original photo.

[autofocus]

I just played with your image in PS and it can make a very nice dramatic black and white using the high contras red filter. Kind of reminds me of the days shooting B/W with a red filter over the lens.

[gotcha]

I personally like what you have done, it looks great esp. for a first timer.

Ignore all the criticism from the bored users =P

[kpritch17]

Thanks for all of the comments! I really need to play around with PS to get more comfortable and learn about all of the things it has to offer. How would I change the photo to make the sky look better (i.e. more detailed and not as "fake" blue looking) without losing the color and detail in the grass?

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by kpritch17

Thanks for all of the comments! I really need to play around with PS to get more comfortable and learn about all of the things it has to offer. How would I change the photo to make the sky look better (i.e. more detailed and not as "fake" blue looking) without losing the color and detail in the grass?

Try a simple curves adjustment in the RGB channel. Lock the center point on the diagonal line by clicking on it, and then drag down slightly the left side of that center point on the line. You will be creating and see an "S" shaped line develop...you will also see your image change as you do it. Just play with that until you like the results you see.

[RichardHealy]

Originally Posted by kpritch17

How would I change the photo to make the sky look better (i.e. more detailed and not as "fake" blue looking) without losing the color and detail in the grass?

If you want to start mucking about with isolating changes in particular parts of the image, you should lookup learning about masking and get comfortable with layers, so that any changes you make can be isolated to *only* the grass or *only* the sky and so on Selective sharpening works in much the same way and will enable you to retain the detail in the grass, without, say, sharpening the clouds. Photoshop lets you do all this with ease once you know how.


Understanding Layers in Photoshop

Spot Sharpening with a Faux Layer Mask in Photoshop Elements

Hope that helps.