An Enchanted Place

This post is for week four of Robyn’s One Four Challenge. This is a quarterly photo editing challenge that asks us to edit one photo in four ways over a month, posting a different version to our blog each week. I would have liked to spend a little more time working on this final edit but, as today is the final day of February, I thought I probably ought to post it as it is!

For this final edit I wanted to create a cool, soft image with a slight painterly appearance. Thankfully, this week I actually remembered to record the steps I took to create it!

First I opened the image in Camera Raw where I decreased the temperature (-10) and increased the tint (+23). I then increased both the highlights (+61) and the whites (+26) whilst also shifting the shadows (-17) and the blacks (-2) a little. I increased the vibrance (+60), reduced both the contrast (-23) and clarity and finally increased the luminance all the way to 100 with a detail level of 21.

Next I opened the image in Photoshop Elements 13 where I added a Levels layer over the ‘campfire’ – increasing both blacks and the whites to make it stand out a little better. I also added a soft glow layer at 60% opacity, a ‘shiny sphere’ gradient map at 20% opacity and an angled strokes layer at 25%. To finish off I gave it a slight crop.

Here are all the edits together for comparison:

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As it’s week four it’s also time for a poll – please let me know which edit you like best!