After-Before Challenge: Week 33

I found a new challenge this week. Stacy at Visual Venturing hosts the weekly After-Before Challenge. Some weeks, there is a photo submitted by someone else that everyone takes and processes. Most weeks, you pick from your library and do some processing. This week’s challenge is to select an image from your library to edit.

Here is my final photo:

Here is my original photo:

This image was taken in Nikon RAW (NEF) format, so I began by enhancing the image in the RAW converter in PhotoShop. I bumped up the exposure, contrast, whites, clarity, and vibrance and bumped down the shadows and blacks. Once the image was open in PhotoShop, I created a layer to add additional contrast. Next, I created another layer to fade the saturation.  On the fade layer, I erase the foreground image with a soft brush it to let the vibrant colors on the lower layer come through. I then added one more layer between the contrast and fade layers to sharpen the foreground image, including some minor adjustments on the shadows and some major ones on the highlights.

To see more After-Before entries, visit After-Before Week 33.

Click the image above for rules on joining the fun!