Anatomy of...RainDog's Grand Canyon

I rarely photograph or edit landscape shots.  Honestly I just pretty much stink at anything but people shots.
This fact is kind of ironic considering we've owned our own landscape business for 10 years!


But...when my bestest bud RainDog was showing me pics from her trip to the Grand Canyon, I couldn't help myself...my uncontrollable obsession to mess with every photo I see completely took over!
I ripped the memory card straight from her camera and started downloading them right into my photoshop elements.


So in the spirit of the New Year, I'm going to share with you my attempt to try something new and edit some landscape pics that were taken by RainDog {photographer extraordinaire}!


Here's the first original:

There's no mistaking the beauty and awe of this photo and place...but those annoying tourists are messing it all up!


So I used my handy-dandy Clone Stamp and stamped them right out of the picture!  Then I did a little cropping and some levels adjustment.  I also sharpened just a little using Erin's Sharpen Powerhouse . Here's what I got with those basic edits:

Better already!  Then I decided to have some fun and go for the "funky cool postcard" look.

You guessed it...I added some textures:

Marsh 2 @62% - Kaleidoscope Gallery Collection

Vintage cool - FloraBella Textures 1

Reverie warm - FloraBella Textures 1

Ethereal warm - FloraBella Textures 1

I added layer masks to each layer and erased with low opacity black brushes primarily the middle sections, leaving the edges more dramatic.   Here's my layers palette showing each layer:

I love how the Marsh texture really added the blue to the sky.  I know I could have done that manually in elements but I was way too lazy to try it ~ the texture did the work for me!  Here's my final:

Here's a few more that I played around with...RainDog decided to get really funky and took this cool, artsy pic.  I just love cool artsy stuff:)

Again, I did some small Levels adjustments and ran Sharpen Powershouse and brightened it up just a little.  

Then I ran the Coffeeshop Orton action and added the Patina cool texture from FloraBella Textures 1.

And finally I grabbed this shot of a neat peak...I'm just in awe of how beautiful this is...

I ran the basic Levels and did some extreme sharpening then ran Coffeeshop Color Tints action and selected Vintage Blue option.  This is pretty dramatic but I wasn't exactly going for the realistic look!

So there you have it. I've bared my first attempts at landscape edits to the cyber world!  

Let this be encouragement to you to explore outside of your comfort zones every now and then...you just may surprise yourself at what you can achieve!

Thanks RainDog...I'll leave this shot from the Hoover Dam for YOU to edit!