This is NOT my photo- it's here to show Nina how to enhance one of her pictures.
SO DO NOT LEAVE A COMMENT!!!
Here's what I did Nina;
On Ribbet.com I uploaded your picture. Then I selected the sharpen edit under the "basics" button. I only sharpened it a little bit (+4) to add a little clarity on some of the details like the fence posts. Otherwise it was too much. Your shot was already quite in focus.
The next thing I did was to select "exposure". I then lowered your exposure quite a bit to bring out the color of your mountains and the grasses in the field. I wanted a natural look but also a rich one and I also wanted the sky to be a little more distinct so under exposing the scene rather than over exposing it enabled that to happen. It was slightly overexposed to begin with. Now, if you were doing this, you may not have wanted the same depth of color and you may have adjusted it differently and that would have been fine. That's what's great about "sliders"- those little tabs that let you determine how much of an effect you will apply to your picture- they give you complete control of the outcome.
The next thing I did was to select how much contrast there would be in the color range. This is basically how the colors interact with each other- or in the case of black and white how bold the black looks against the white parts of the picture. In this picture it's how the oranges and yellows of the grass in the field "pops" against the blues of the mountains and the sky.
And finally, I added a little "vibrance" (which is found under "effects") to brighten up the scene on the whole.
Most of the time these are the basic things I do to all of my pictures: sharpen, adjust exposure only if needed, contrast, and vibrance (or sometimes saturation which accomplishes the same thing).
There are several "freebie" photo processing programs available on line. Ace members used to be able to use Picmonkey via 365 but I think that's changing- not because of 365 but because of Adobe who used to support Picmonkey. I think a lot of 365ers also use Picasa but I've never used that one so I don't know how good it is. Anyway there are options out there for you to experiment with and as you can see, some very simple adjustments can have some pretty dynamic results!
Give it a try- and if you have any questions always feel free to ask!!
Just thought I'd play around a little with your picture after you commented that you weren't sure what to do with it after sooc. So even though the explanation may look lengthy, the whole process took less than 5 minutes!
Wow! This is outstanding Ann. Thank you very much.
You say Ribbet.com
I will look into it - just hope and pray it is Nina friendly
Thank you very much Ann
Ann, Thank you, I love what you have done. This is what I am looking for - constructive help and advice
I have been using faststone - that is very limited.
I promise to play around with Ribbet and see what results I can come up with
Thank you very much, I really really appreciate it
Thank you
Just thought I'd play around a little with your picture after you commented that you weren't sure what to do with it after sooc. So even though the explanation may look lengthy, the whole process took less than 5 minutes!
You say Ribbet.com
I will look into it - just hope and pray it is Nina friendly
Thank you very much Ann
I have been using faststone - that is very limited.
I promise to play around with Ribbet and see what results I can come up with
Thank you very much, I really really appreciate it
Thank you
And Ribbet should be very Nina friendly. It was the first processing program I used when I started and I still use it a lot.