Please help me learn to edit!

Hey guys there was a random very quick "storm" if you will down at my house the other day and it had left a beautiful rainbow over the neighboring houses and I tried to get some good pictures of it. Just when I thought I was getting better I met a challenge I had not faced or read up on how to handle.


So I came up with this picture:


I tried to make the rainbow stand out more and darken the walls in the backyard to look more natural. When I had trouble with that I thought okay I will just crop out that bottom half and part of the house on the left. Well now that looks like a poorly composed picture. After me trying to save this picture and make it look better this is what I came up with




So if anyone can take a shot at editing this and let me know what you did. Or just give me some advice on how I can edit this I would be very appreciative.


And yes if you look closely there were 2 rainbows just one is so faint it almost looks like a ghost effect.
BTW I am using CS5

 

I don't know, I just took a crack at it. Let me know?

 

I like the color of the rainbow and sky just the backyard and roof of the house, possibly the tree I think should be toned down. I know everyone has their personal preferences but I dont know. I guess I dont even know what I really want haha

 

Here is my take on it, a bit blurry yes, but I just liked it for this pic.

 

My version.

Original on top.



Lots of layers, started with levels just for the sky, then masked off what I didnt want adjusted, same again for the shadows but inverted mask and brushed back in what I did want bottom left and once more for the wall.

Adjusted vibrancy and again masked off what I didnt want.

Adjusted Edxposure and gamma and reduced layer opacity to suit.

Added a blue photo filter to reduce colour cast a little, sharpened, done.

 

I think I may like the original so far, but of the edits I like Freezor's...more subtle. I tend to not like pictures where PP has obviously been done.

Freezor's sky edit is best imo, but wall looks a bit over saturated.

RobNZ has a really nice wall/tree, but sky is a bit too dark for me...rainbows happen after sun comes back out after all.

 

use your camera raw and bump up the vibrant. Thats all you have to do to make the rainbow POP.

 

Thank you for all the tips guys

RobNZ I really like that the walls and everything look natural and the rainbow it's self looks more colorful. Thank you for the expanation.

I guess I just need to learn how to use the layers properly because when I try and select the area I want to edit then use the adjustments it still adjusts the whole photo.