Hi Diana,
Behind every good photograph is a moderately sophisticated decision making process that starts with the pre-conceptualisation of the image and then goes on to lens choice, composition, lighting, moment and then onto the post-production of the image. Every decision can either improve or degrade a photograph, in fact it is almost like a game of snakes and ladders; all the best planning at one stage can be wasted if you fail in another stage.
This photograph is one of those examples. You have seen the idea (the pre-conceptualisation) but getting it into print form has proven a little bit tougher. The three big problems with this image at the moment are the highlights in the top left of the frame, the big empty space through the foreground of the picture and finally the overall dark tones in which you have lost much of the interesting detail. Lets start by cropping this image to a square, in the process cropping out the dead foreground and the bright sky. While I am at it I would select that little island in the background, copy it and then paste as a new layer and then nudge it slightly to the left… this separation is always good if you have multiple ideas in the image. You will need to do a little cloning in the process but if you take your time you will be ok.
The next step is to lift the tones and believe it or not I am going to use the HDR tool in Photoshop CS5 to do this… (Image>Adjustments>HDR Toning). This tool is good for opening up the shadows and quickly making broad adjustments to the image. Finally, warm up the foreground a little by creating a new layer, pulling the opacity on that layer back to 20% and then painting onto that layer a brown colour to add some warmth to the foreground.
Finally, add a vignette to the image by using the square Marquee tool set to 250 pixels to select a square frame within the picture, invert the selection so that only the outside area is selected and then use the Exposure tool in the layers palette to darken the border slightly. Have a go and see if this makes your image look better.
Cheers, Image Doctor
No Mans Land - Image Doctor's edited version
