Pretty sky, lots of contrast.

Added canvas to the top and bottom.
Knocked out image.
Used FP Flood for the water effect.
The sky came from a previous sunset I shot.
Adapt.eq to bring out some detail.
Light simplification.
Desaturated certain areas.
Hue and sat adjustments via selections.
Increased color of foliage.
Eliminated a few things I thought to be distracting.
Simplified sky again to compensate for image reduction.
Contrast adjustment.
Warmed Colors a bit.
Made frame in layer styles.

:nod: Excellent Lqqker, love that sky and great to see FP Flood being used...!

I resized mines to 150% in PSP8.01.
Did the rest in Painter8 following this tutorial:-
http://www.paintercreativity.com/articles/js-ballerina-sitting.html
Added a matte frame in PSP8.01

Thanks for a great photo Danny....!

Lqqker, that is absolutely amazing. It is striking, bold, and dramatic. It looks like it belongs on a book cover or in a gallery. I would buy a print of that in a heartbeat.

Neve, I'm beginning to be jealous. I want Painter. I want Painter. LOL.

Janet

I wanted an excuse to try a planet and starfield tutorial I found.
I used curves, color balance, and some dodging and burning to get the lighthouse to look the way I wanted. Then I extracted it, flipped it horizotally, and left it on it's own layer.
I did the planet and starfield by following a tuorial by Greg Martin: plantet, star tutotial (http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tutorials.html)

I copied the star layer and flipped it to make a mirror image.
I drew an orange line where they meet to create a horizon line.
Then I took my other elements (planet, lighthouse, and tugboat) ,which were all on seperate layers, and positioned them on the starfield background.
Then I copied and flipped these layers and positioned them to create the reflections.

I wanted an excuse to try a planet and starfield tutorial I found.
I used curves, color balance, and some dodging and burning to get the lighthouse to look the way I wanted. Then I extracted it, flipped it horizotally, and left it on it's own layer.
I did the planet and starfield by following a tuorial by Greg Martin: plantet, star tutotial (http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tutorials.html)

I copied the star layer and flipped it to make a mirror image.
I drew an orange line where they meet to create a horizon line.
Then I took my other elements (planet, lighthouse, and tugboat) ,which were all on seperate layers, and positioned them on the starfield background.
Then I copied and flipped these layers and positioned them to create the reflections.

Appreciate the tutorial link. Your skills, creativity and contributions thus far are a breath of fresh air! Keep it up.

Many thanks...

~Danny~