Creating a piece worthy of photo contests

[litz]

I have taken this shot at Crater Lake Oregon and would like to enhance it. May be not worthy of a photo contest, but just a sample to play with.
Thank for any input.
litz

[gholmes1936]

Show us the shot.

[litz]

I thought I had. I uploaded a file,but, it atttach,but did'nt show when I posted it on the fourm.

[gholmes1936]

Originally Posted by litz

I thought I had. I uploaded a file,but, it atttach,but did'nt show when I posted it on the fourm.

So does this mean you aren't going to post it?

[litz]

picture attached

[Britsdad]

Just thought I'd have a quick play in Camera raw.

John

[litz]

What did you do in camera raw to increase the browns and still have the rich blues?

[gholmes1936]

First I adjusted the color and focus, as well as isolate the foreground and background. Then used "Smart Blur" to make the background recede more.

Then on one I used a filter from Filter Forge, and on the other I used Topaz Adjust.

[Britsdad]

litz,
I take it the question was for me, all I did was adjust the white balance to remove the blue cast then pumped up the vibrance and clarity a little.

A few other odds and sods with curves to brighten and set the colour of the sky and done.

John

[litz]

Thank you Britsdad.I love to see other people's creations on this site.

[John Wheeler]

Hi Litz
Crater Lake is a beautiful place and you have a nice shot.

Here are some thoughts and direction.

- the background cuts right through the main center of attention and in some respects the object of primary focus gets lost in the background a bit. A different composition may not have been possible yet playing with different depths of field might have been interesting.
- alternately for post processing I looked for a way to make it stand out more. I did that in the image below through Smart Objects, masking, and Hue/Sat Layers for both foreground and background. For the background I increased the blur and desaturated the mountain colors a bit and actually increased the blue saturation of water and sky. For foreground I added sharpening and increased the overall saturation overall and a bit more with the yellows. Season to taste. I put them side by side so you can see how the object of interest stands out more:

new-old-man-on-a-hill37-SFW.jpg

Hope this is useful.

[0lBaldy]

Must agree with all the above... composition, sharpness and subject focus...

My interpretation crops the Rabbit (OldMan) so it is looking into the picture and off center a bit then bringing out some details and color to separate it from the background which I lessened the highlights that were distracting on the mountain...

Nice Capture!! and thanks for letting us play with it!