my alaska :-) PLEASE COMMENT

[Nix]

ok now before you look at the picture... i want you to comment your exact first thought. and THEN comment me critiques on how to make it better. PLEASE your input has helped me take pictures like this from pictures that were mediocre at best

 

[LaFoto]

Immediate thought No 1: you need a straight horizon. Rotate this photo by (guess-guess-guess) 3 degrees counterclockwise to achieve that.

Immediate thought No 2: there is something distracting at the low righthand corner. Much of it will go by the necessary crop after you rotated, and make sure it all disapears. (And did you take this through a closed car window and do we see a reflection on the black rock on the right? There is something bright and white there ... that must definitely go.

Further thoughts: after you have done the little adjustments and cloned out the little white whatever-it-is on the rock, selectively brighten that rock with a nicely feathered lasso, just so that it doesn't show and yet the rock is not quite as black.

In a similar manner I would try to bring out the colours in the sky more by selectively darkening that a bit. All just so it does not look wrong ...

A pity that with the straightening and subsequen cropping the firs on the rock will almost go. Some people can cut such things out and put them back in another place. I can't, but that would be an idea for it'd be a pity to lose those!

 

[Nix]

if there is anyone here that can help by photoshopping this to make it better i would be SO appreciative

 

[LaFoto]

OK, I can try on your 800x533 version, though it is always easier to work with the original version... PM?

 

[cosmonaut]

You pretty much covered it all LaFoto.
Cosmo

 

[LaFoto]

Here's my edit from the original size version (which Nix e-mailed to me) and it took me longer than I thought to create it for I went all wrong with selectively brightening the rock at first, I got a hell of a halo and no burning could cover that up, no matter how much I tried.

I see that halo in your edit, Cosmo, and I feel it is oversharpened now? Which may be so because you used the downsized version?

OK, here is what I call "my first edit" for I feel there is more that can be done. I hope I remember all the steps I took:

I straightened the horizon by going only 2 degrees counterclockwise (I had guessed three but three are one too much).

I cloned out the reflection and part of the car (I think it was?).

I lassoed (at 60px) the beach save the rock and the area at the bottom and pushed in the shadow level to 20. That made the orange water in the back already quite orange, but I felt the sky could still need some more colour by pushing the shadows. So I lassoed the sky only and pushed the new histogramme shadow level to 25.

I then threw a much smaller lasso around the rock and the bottom (leaving about 1 cm of room between rock and sky so the feathering would cover that part and hopefully not give me a halo) and upped the highlights on the rock until I felt it was ok (I think I went from 245 to 150).

In the end I felt I might like to individually up the saturation of the reds and yellows by +10 and that of the blues by +20.

Yes, that is what I did.
I totally forgot to use the unsharp mask... and it shows

 

[LaFoto]

USM applied (to the original size version - then downsized to 800x533):

Stored by Photobucket ... ugh. They really do photos more harm than good ... their only advantage is they are free.

 

[cosmonaut]

Thanks LaFoto, You have a sharp eye as always. I must have over sharpened it.
Cosmo

 

[astrostu]

My immediate first thought is: myeh. It just doesn't do too much for me. I prefer more saturated colors where the sky is lit up with color (other than blue).

Just my personal preference, but since you wanted comments ...