On my trip to Colorado I had a chance to shoot this sunrise near Estes Park in the Rocky Mountain National Park. The starting picture was quite boring but there is a lot of color in the RAW file waiting to be released.
Once again I used presets and custom brushes from sleeklens.com to speed up the process.
I started by applying the Base Auto Toner (Color) and Exposure Darken Shadows Presets. Then I increased the vibrance and used a graduated filter with the Cloudy Sky Definition brush preset to define the sky.
Now the fun begins. With the help of brushes I added some buch needed light to the fore and middle ground as well as enhanced the golden glow on the horizon. I also darkened some of the mountains for contrast.
Now there is much more depth to the picture. I utilized the following brushes: Haze Golden, Light Brighten, Light Darken and Haze Golden 2.
Next I added the Deep Blue Sky preset.
Finally I fine tuned the brush strokes, adjusted contrast and added 2 graduated filters. One on the bottom to increase clarity in the woods and on on top to darken the sky.
Thats it! and with the help of presets I did this edit in about one third of the time.
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