Let's Get the Party Started.....

[ggroess]

I have been very fortunate to live and work in a beautiful area.  This is a photo I shot at about mid-day back in august.
It needs help....Maybe not too much but I know it needs help....

For the new people, try out Curvemeister in the wizard mode, or open it up and try it in the "regular" mode. 

For everyone else, describe what problems you are fixing and how you fixed them.  Try to describe the issues in common terms so that we are all able to move forward. 

Everyone please try this image and post your results. 

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

Here is a first try. I use Curvemeister and Elements. Did not crop as I liked view. Started with some slight adjustments with levels. My normal procedure. Continued with adjustments in Curvemeister. Main goals:
- Try to increase the brightness of the sea
- Increase contrast and saturation
Used the pins in Curvemeister and curves in lab mode.

Do not know what to do with the sky. ??? Looks rather dull.

[ggroess]

A very solid correction to the image...good work...we'll get to the sky problem soon.. I don't want to give it all away on the first image posted...

Now...
Part of my task here is to push you a bit further, hopefully encourage you to play a bit......So my question to you is....
Do you use layers in Elements?  And if so can you use unsharp mask to improve this image even more??

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

Good advice. Yes I try to use layers. Here is my second try. Besides unsharp mask I used some gradient. Forgot to say that I like your picture. :)

[ggroess]

The gradient is a bit much but hey...it's playtime...I like the darker sky...hmmm... might have to revisit the image....

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

Here is my version. I increased colors in Lab, then set shadow, highlight and neutral in RGB and finally Unsharp mask.

[mikemeister_admin]

Here's my try - first increased colors in lab, then improved the sky by first masking it then increased the color in lab as well. The problem here was that some areas became too pixelated and got a slight magenta touch, so I've used the same mask again and filled it with a blue gradient, set to about 30 percent opacity. Then I took a second mask to work the sea's color, in lab mode as well. Some unsharp masking at the end.

Joe

[ggroess]

Very nice...you brought out some color variation in the water...

Nice post card....

Greg

[Gary]

Hi.. I apologize if you got this before this is the third time I've  sent it over the past several hours, problem at my end I think.
Anyway a am sending my attempt at your image, I used curves to increase the contrast a bit, then I used a layer mask to lighten the water, then a gradient to darken the sky a bit then reduced the opacity of the gradient a bit and made a pass with the unsharp mask. I was having a problem with the whitecaps on the water blowing out and wanted to retain any detail in them that I could.

Gary

[ggroess]

we got it one time thanks...

You made mention of masking...as have others...Are you using the CM mask pallet??  or are you making masks in PS or PSE??

Greg