![done](http://54.235.50.190/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/done.jpg)
So a lot of people have asked me how I photoshop my landscape photos so I finally got around to doing a little post about it. Surprisingly it is actually really quick. Below are screen grabs from photoshop of the steps.
Step 1:
So as you can see the original is a little crooked and very dull. This is nothing like what I saw but what I do have here is the photo straight out of the camera with all of the settings in camera set to zero.
![step-01](http://54.235.50.190/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/step-01.jpg)
Step: 2
I used image>rotate canvas>arbitrary to straighten the horizon. Normally this is not necessary if you take it straight in the first place :o)
![step-02](http://54.235.50.190/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/step-02.jpg)
step 3:
So here I applied a little unsharp mask and adjusted the levels, it is already starting to look a lot better.
![step-03](http://54.235.50.190/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/step-03.jpg)
step 4:
So step 4 is my favorite part using the burn tool I set it to midtones and 20-30% exposure and burn in the clouds this helps to define them. Then switch from midtones to shadows and go back over them lightly to really define the edges.
![step-04](http://54.235.50.190/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/step-04.jpg)
step 5:
So here I add a little saturation each photo is a bit different but generally it is around 14.
![step-05](http://54.235.50.190/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/step-05.jpg)
So that’s it. Obviously all of these things can be adjusted but this finished shot is very close to how it actually looked today. A lot of people are very proud that they do not use photoshop at all, I don’t think this is a very good attitude. Photographers have always used darkroom techniques to produce their work. The tools I used in this post are all things that could have been done and were done in the darkroom of years past.