Water crown - The power of PP

[Stryker]

I was shooting some water drops out of sheer boredom and one of the images was this one (this is SOOC, no editing, not even reduction, it is a 6MP image but Flickr reduces it to 1024 x 681):



EXIF:
Speed ...........: 1 / 500 sec
Aperture ........: f / 8.0
Focal length ...: 90 mm
ISO speed ......: 800
Flash .............: Fired

I thought it was pretty dull and lifeless. The blue colour is because of the plastic bucket which I had placed under the tap. Moreover, I couldn't really see the water crown clearly, although it was still visible enough for me to recognize that it was there! So I tried my PS skills on this one and came up with this:



What I did:

Cropped the image so that only the crown was visible. Then the following steps in the same order:

Brightness ........: -50
Contrast ...........: -50
Levels ..............: Just hit the "Auto" button
Curves .............: Just hit the "Auto" button
Exposure ..........: +0.66
Offset ...............: -0.005
Gamma ............: 1.00 (no change)
Saturation .........: +10
Unsharp Mask ...: 100% / 3.5 Radius / 10 Levels

It took some time to get the permutations right, but the kicker seems to be the reduction of the brightness and contrast! Take that away and the remaining does not affect the image much.

The "After" certainly looks better bigger so please click through to have a look.

What do you guys think?

[TW0R]

I like the first blue, because it makes it look like it was in the Bahamas or something and not in your sink, but the after shot definitely makes the crown stand out more. Looks real intense!

[TasiAlexis]

I love what you did to the photo,
It added a lot of depth, intensity, and magic to the shot.
Kudos!

[Stryker]

Thanks for the feedback, TW0R and TasiAlexis. Sorry for the late reply, my computer decided to crash on me minutes after making the original post. I am yet to get it back from the shop, using my office computer for replying.

Originally Posted by TW0R

I like the first blue, because it makes it look like it was in the Bahamas or something and not in your sink ...

Ha, ha, that was real good! The Bahamas, indeed. Hope to go there one day and take a real shot.