Reminds you of a hot summer day, no? Well it was actually taken in Spring, weeks before there were even leaves on the trees. I didn’t do a lot of post processing, so there’s not much to share in that regard. Nonetheless…

Here’s what I did:

• Reduced contrast using a Brightness/Contrast layer
• Created a Selective Color layer; slightly shifted the hue of the black color range to red
• Added a warming photo filter layer
• Created a curves layer and set it to soft light for a subtle contrast addition
• Cloned the original image, brightened it up a bit, and cut out all the grass using a color range selection. I put it above all other layers, which is why the chair remains unaffected by the warming filter, etc.
• Added a black vignette around the outside of the image, set to Overlay.
• Copied all yellow data from the original and put it on top of everything else. This makes the grass, and especially the dandelions, stand out.

I really like duplicating layers and excluding parts of them, as I find that it gives me the opportunity to use multiple types of processing to my advantage instead of just one. I rarely ever manipulate the original image directly; I prefer just using adjustment layers or edited duplicates of the original. If I lose the original, I sometimes find myself deviating so far from it that the photograph becomes a different work entirely.

When I did this picture I was still learning how to use Curves layers to alter colors. At the time, I usually just used Selective Color adjustment layers instead of Curves. Once I realized that people use Curves layers to get those artsy subtle color undertones, I started learning how to do it myself.