Storm Clouds at Great Sand Dunes: Snapshot to Fine Art Landscape Print

As you can see, the raw image is pretty flat: colors are pale, and contrast is low in most areas of the image. Also the sky is so bright that all the cloud detail hidden.

The first major step is to make "global" adjustments - adjustments to the whole image. For instance I can adjust the overall color (warmer/cooler and saturation) as well as adjust the brightness. In this image you can see I've darkened the image, especially the sky to bring out all the textures in the dramatic clouds. I also adjusted the contrast in various areas of the tonal range to bring out, for instance, more contrast in the foreground grasses and the sand dunes.

That done, I then move to localized adjustments. Here I adjust the color, contrast, lighting, and sharpness to emphasize some areas of the image and de-emphasize others. For this image I brought out more dramatic detail in the clouds. For the sand dunes I brought out a stronger sense of light and increased the warmth to emphasize the bit of sunlight that was striking them. Similarly I emphasized the light on the center of the grasses and shrubs. Finally I decreased emphasis on the edges. My goal is for your eye to bounce between the center grasses, the center sand dunes, and then the clouds, and then explore the image further to find additional treasures.

Of course when you take a picture with most cameras, you don't see the 'raw' image but an automatically processed version that tries to match what the eye sees. So why do I edit my own images? I also included the auto-processed version for comparison; it's certainly much better than the raw image, but I don't feel it conveys my feelings while admiring the scene.

What do you think?