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.
- Then some of TK’s LIGHTS and DARKS Triple Play to add some micro contrast to the light and dark areas of the image.
- Next, I brought the image into the NIK Vivaza plugin to give the image a tiny bit of “structure”, and a bit of warmth and saturation.
- Next, I dodged some of the ice in the foreground and parts of the cliff – the sunlit areas.
- Then I added a vignette to the image.
- And lastly, a final curves layer to finesse the overall contrast and brightness.
