Sunset On The Lake

As the temperature continues to soar, I continue to look for comfort in my photographs, and an air-conditioning unit turned on to the max.  This photograph was taken at the same time as the previous photograph that appeared here on the blog, Front Row Seat For Summer.  It's also not 100% natural.  I've been trying to work on my Photoshop skills of late.  I know, I've been vocal against such things in the past, and I still don't do very much post editing with my shots, but I figured I'd give it a shot with this one because I really wanted to bring out the colours that were in the sky.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 40mm.  In order to bring out the colours of the sky, I used the Curves tool in Photoshop.  I'm far from being a Photoshop expert, so the easiest way I can try to describe using Curves would be that the tool allows me to redistribute the contrast and tones.  In this case I was able to push out the colour from the original photograph, at the same time making the mountains and boats a little darker, which I feel looks much better.  The 'Photoshopped' image is much closer to what I wanted to capture than the original file.  Just to show the difference, I've included my original file below so that you can see the difference.   It's a fun tool to play with, so I'll probably keep experimenting with it in the future.