Babine

Selected the bracket, saved the selection to an alpha channel, with the selection active, desaturated then curves adjustment layers for brightness and contrast. Sharpened in Lightness mode.

Cheers. Gary http://forums.dpreview.com/Galleries/8298604696/photos http://www.pbase.com/pictek Follow your dreams! Well ... except for the one where you are naked in church.

Selected the cat with Topaz Remask, fine tuned with Quick Mask mode, extracted to a new layer, replaced the BG with a window view, replaced the red in the blanket to match, curves adjustments for ...

A colour enhanced version with emphasis on the cloud formation.

Totally agreed Tony and thanks. Makes the time spent on the photo even more meaningful. I cannot imagine his memories ....

- Started with a copy in ACR and the sliders pertaining to opacity, i.e. shadows, highlights, dehaze, contrast etc then the colours in HSL. - In CC, channel blending (Apply Image) and numerous ...

Honestly, I don't have a 'routine' blending mode. Instead and because the effect is applied to a duplicate layer, I click through various blends to see which has the desired effect .. each shot ...

Hey Ernie .. The technique that I use mostly is here. Of course, you will need the Topaz plugin. I apply it to a duplicate, copy it then paste it over the original. Now, with that sharpened ...

- duplicated original - duplicate into ACR for adjustments to lights, darks, contrast, saturation, etc - in PS, applied the effects selectively with a mask - applied Shadow/Highlights to my taste ...

Original Mode looks better.

I missed a step! Darn. :^( Once you have the duplicate in Vivid Light mode, INVERT it (CTRL - I) and continue on as you did from there. Sorry 'bout that and thanks for taking the time to point it out.

A little warmer considering the time of day and a sky from the Net to match.

Well done. As I stated, just something that I dug up from the past and threw it out there. So many other ways of reaching the same results nowadays...

I have no idea why. Worked here on two other such examples. Certain with the blend modes?

Revisiting a few 'notes from the past' while things are a bit slow on the site, I thought that this one might be of interest  to PS users .. - duplicate original - change layer mode to Vivid Light ...