Make it Pop

Written by: Tiffany Joyce

This is an image that I shot of the Grand Tetons, with Jenny Lake in the foreground, during my vacation in Wyoming this past summer.

This is straight out of the camera and completely unaltered. It’s a pretty enough shot, but weirdly hazy, and certainly not representative of the sight I saw with my own eyes. But we can fix that!

The first thing I set out to do is sharpen up the image a bit. Under the “Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask” menu, I chose the following settings:

Next I livened up the colors by adjusting the Curves. Under the “Image/Adjustments/Curves” menu I used the “Medium Contrast” preset:

Next, I used the “Burn” tool to darken the mountain peaks a bit and make them look less hazy:

Finally I added my signature to the bottom of the photo:

This is the final edited photo:

And here’s the “before”, again, so you can compare side-by side:

I think the changes are significant without being overwhelming, and without adding a feeling of “falseness” to the image. What do you think? What would you have done differently?

Photo credits (all): Laura Charon.

Previous Post: Establishing a Post-Processing Routine