Sunset Edit- input/help wanted

[ksouza]

New to photography and just got photoshop elements 8

Made the following changes:
smart brush tool "sunset" on sky
smart brush tool "greenery" on mid section
brightened water a bit

not happy with the sky i feel as though it looks blurry and overdone... would also like the sun to be sharper. Tried the sharpening tool and wasnt happy with results. Any suggestions?


BEFORE

From Photography

AFTER

From Photography

[fable-designs]

Hi there,

I'm not entirely sure if PSE8 has the high pass filter, but if it does, here are the steps you can take.

Duplicate the photo layer and set this layer to soft light, overlay or hard light. Which ever you find works best (may take some trial and error).

Then, on your new layer, go filter > other > high pass and adjust it until you get the desired amount of sharpness. I usually end up around 4, but it is definitely a preference thing.

Hope this helps!

~Lyra

[Michael_2010]

When looking at the larger version, it appears that nothing is really in focus. Post-processing can only improve an image so much before it starts to look unrealistic and odd. Or, you could experiment with different digital effects and maybe come up with something interesting.

We use the same camera and I see that you could greatly improve the quality of this type photo by adjusting the settings, but you will need a tripod.

[command-s]

Hey there, good stuff, here's my 2 cents...to me the image looks over saturated, especially the sky. If you could tone that back it would look more realistic. But in general the whole image looks a little overdone with saturation.

[ksouza]

thank you all so much for your input