Catch me before...

... it's Fall.

[finished version on my [url=http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/1375062]Kinda Horrigans[/url] journal]

Y'know - this image irritates me. I had an idea in my head for an Autumnal still life, but mucked it up because I used far too wide an aperture which meant that not enough of the shot was sharp. I should really have gone for something at least at f/8 and didn't spot that I hadn't changed it. Note to self: check the settings properly!!!

Anyway, it required a bit of a rescue. So, I processed the RAW file and brightened the exposure by +1.4, reduced the brightness to +20 and also reduced the blacks to +2. Clarity I upped to +5 then warmed the white balance just a smidge. In Photoshop, I used a few layers to further warm it up and give it an Autumnal feel. That's a bit complicated so I'm going to skim over it a tad as I don't want to put anyone off! After that, I straightened it (should have done this first, but didn't spot how awkwardly composed it was until too late) by using the move tool and then cloning to fill the areas rotating it had left. Then, a further hue/saturation to boost the colour of the leaves / berries (Saturation at +10, Lightness at +5) and used a black brush on the layer mask to delete the effect everywhere other than the bits I wanted boosted. Added a vignette by using Lens Correction > Distort > Vignette. Then, sharpened...

And saved.

Tip of the Day:
There are lots of ways of popping the colour in an image - one tutorial on how to pop a particular colour is available in this article and it's worth a try if you fancy bringing out some nice rich colour in your shots.