Landscape Edits with Brent Riggs

Ashley, author of one of the blogs I follow (Ramblings and Photos), is participating in a photo challenge of sorts with Brent Riggs. Here's the deal****:

1.Download this original landscape photo he took by clicking here…

2.Do your own version of improving, enhancing and otherwise putting “wow” into this image.

3.Put up a post on your blog displaying your enhanced photo, and explaining what you did.

4.Come back to this post, and enter your photo and blog post on the Thumbnail Linky.

5.Then, Brent Riggs will do a private online demonstration of what he does to get his outdoor photography to come alive, and send a link to every person who participated by following these instructions and entered the Thumbnail Linky list.

(****instructions courtesy http://www.ashleysisk.blogspot.com/~ Thank you Ashley for letting me use your words!!!**** )

Sounds like fun, right? And on top of it, I'll get some pointers on photography from someone who knows more than me. Can't beat that! So, here goes! :)

Here is the original image:

Here is what my final edit looks like:

I rather like it!

Here is what I did to get this edit. I don't have any fancy schmancy photo editing software. I just use what came on our computer, Windows Live Photo Gallery, so my editing instructions might make no sense at all. :)

First, I straightened the photo out a bit, just a smidgen to the left (to make the photo turn to the right...)

Then I lowered the brightness and took the contrast to the ceiling (um, so moved the brightness about 10 degrees lower than 50 and moved the contrast all the way to 100).

(Unless otherwise noted, all edits are being moved from a 50% position.)

I moved the shadows up to about 75%.

I took the highlights down to about 40%.

And then I made the color temp a little warmer. I like what this did for the photo.

Then I messed with the tint a bit and settled for about a 45% tint.

Following the tint, I increased the saturation by about 10%.

My favorite part of editing? Sharpening and reducing noise. I don't know why, I just like it. So I sharpened to about 85% and reduced the noise (which brought the noise level pretty much smack dab in the middle at about 50%).

There you have it! If you'd like to join in, I think there is still some time left today! Enter your photos here.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone! :)