PHOTO INFO
I shot this around 10:00 a.m. on Friday when the skies started clearing from the heavy rain we'd just had. The light was beautiful on that hill.

Post-processing: Shot with the Canon 5D at 17mm, ISO 50, 1/160s at f/9. Adjusted white balance, multiple curves adjustments for saturation and contrast, color balancing, selective color saturation/desaturation.

Thanks for all the nice birthday wishes on the previous post. :)

Happy Monday!

--Kathleen

wow, lovely painterly feel. The road is a great balance to lead the eye, I love the detail of the ground and field. Great!

Nice.

Beautiful. The complementary color palette is what makes this image for me.

Great picture. Any way I could get you to email a small picture of the original? - would really like to compare. I love this picture! Just curious, how long did you spend at this site to get the right lighting?

Very origin work. Nice color-scheme and nice contrast.

Just to say that your photos are superb.I am inspired -they often brighten up my start to the day.
God bless
Alun.
Wrexham, Wales, UK

For me also the image has a touch of a painting. Wonderful!

I like this scene; the road, the tree, the clouds and reflections all work well together with complimentary colours.

Every time I come here, it's like an 'awake dream'. Each pic reminds me of the movie "La leçon de piano" by Jane Campion... It's... No, there's no word to say it!

Beautiful composition, the colours are so warm yet there is quite an eerie feel to the image too. Very thought provoking Kathleen.

Wow, this is almost a painting. It's beautifully composed though. The road leads the eye, and the cloud is a feast!

I Like how the puddle, the foreground hill, the distant hill, and clouds al seem to follow the same curve.

Completely amazing

Beautiful... reflection in the water, colors, etc..
Good job !

lovely.

Damn Kathleen - another glorious shot. Just beautifully composed.

Another great shot Kathleen, your landscapes always have a wonderful mood about them.
Phil

All I can say, that all your photos are amazingly beautiful. Some of them are maybe too dark.

Great perspective. Your son is missing from this image, in a scuba kit...

Incredible. Your photographic and post processing skills are very impressive!

Another fantastic image. You are just a master of that painterly technique and the technique does not take away from the image.

Great control of reflection, color, contrast, and saturation. Superb work - as usual!

I love the empty road, colors and reflection of sky.

You have such a wonderful eye! Fantastic image.

Very nice.

yet another road I would like to walk down - beautiful as always.

Nice composition. It must be nice to use a 17mm with a full size CMOS.

For a gril, you sure seem to have a way with mud puddles....and your young companion seems to enjoy them as much as you do.

Some day, when you're feeling especially benevolent, you should take this image, and maybe a couple more, and demonstrate to us mere mortals how you used photoshop to create this brilliant image from the original.

Then, properly instructed, we can attempt similar feats with our more modest compositions.

Excellent photo! I like the post processing.

you make a muddy puddle look absolutely divine.

Best picture of a muddy puddle I've ever seen :)

you are definitely best in the world. :)

wow - lovely processing. looks like one of those aged paintings

Outstanding...such lovely contrast.

truly outstanding ... and I'd like to know, to what percentage this is PS CS2? ... just for my ego :D

Beautiful...can't wait for tomorrow's!

Thanks, everyone! Responding:

Sam Blankenship: I really wish I could, but I'm afraid I don't have the time right now to produce a tutorial on the post-work here. Frankly, there isn't much. I spent about three to five minutes shooting this scene (I bracket like crazy and take about 15-20 shots at a time) and probably 20 minutes on post-work.

Lepke: Yeah, they probably are on the dark side - I seem to go in that direction. But now's a great time to calibrate your monitor to make sure you're getting the most out of my images and everyone else's. Try this from my good friends at Photo Friday.

Tobias: Laughing out loud... be careful what you wish for.

david Tinnon: I never knew that boys had the upper hand on mud puddle expertise. :)

Kevin: I have been trying to do that but it's very hard because I never, ever do the same thing twice. I don't even have a workflow, per se. I treat each image individually, from the time I spend in the field composing, etc., to the post-processing. I try to give some basic ideas in my posts, so for now I'll just say: try those, experiment and have fun!

Peter: I'm not quite sure I understand the question! This is a photograph which I spent about 20 minutes post-processing as noted above. It would take some significant talent -- that I definitely do NOT have -- to "create" an image like this in Photoshop. I'm not a matte painter, I'm a photographer. My goal is ALWAYS to spend more time with the camera and less time with the computer. I just purchased a great new camera and four lenses last month so that I can continue to do better work "in the field." Hope that answers your question! If not, let me know. :)

Awesome...just awesome!!

Kathleen, This is stunning your post processing skills are second to none and this is a beautiful shot. I would love to see what the original looked like before you started your work.

Simply Beautiful (as always)

Wow! This is one of the most amazing pictures I have ever seen! Amazing. Truly breathtaking.

*stunned*

Roger,Norway

It's like a painting. Beautiful!

This is truly spectacular...but so was the shot before and after this one ;)

Really phenominal work here. Like a painting.

This is very impressive - your ability to keep the sky detail and the puddle detail is brilliant. I guess it helps having a good wide angle lens....

~simply gorgeous~

wow - breathtaking

Beautiful shot... and i enjoyed reading all the comments and information about how you do this.

Best wishes from Switzerland
Neil