I finally had some time over the weekend to have a go at processing this image. I find the whole exercise of editing images that I didn’t shoot myself rather enjoyable and because I don’t have the associated memory of shooting the image, I feel freer to take the image in any direction that I feel suits it best. With that said, here is what I did:
- I opened the image up in ACR and did some basic edits – white balance, exposure, contrast, shadows, and highlights. I also cropped the image in this step.
- Next, I darkened down the sky a bit and lightened the dark cliffs a bit.
- Then some of TK’s LIGHTS and DARKS Triple Play to add some micro contrast to the light and dark areas of the image.
- Then a warm “photo filter” to increase the warmth.
- Next, I brought the image into the NIK Vivaza plugin to give the image a bit of “structure”, warmth, and saturation.
- And finally, I dodged some of the grassy slopes in the foreground.
edit: I just looked at your version @Jens_Ober and I like it much better than what I came up with.