I was driving home from town up from the valley on a back gravel road.
The colors of the trees were gorgeous.
Yet somehow I knew that what I saw and what I shot with the camera would not be the same.
Here is the original:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnEhFu0-E07yEEqRHopOAiEmW6TuyG8kqMyhYgDlg_hmYf3t6328gD4YlX7mmtMtyv-BhshTjnZayGGwnn_RfdMblfTSdxutCcnrZB5uJVZwbpf0DEkdWH5pLJwfYWHUMRBZ6V9Q/s400/1.jpg)
I began with a single exposure and just for kicks dropped it into Photomatix Light to see what I could do with it.
PL helped a bit, but the sky wasn't working for me and the photo looked a bit off but I did love the colors in it.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg13Ry9D6rWpAJ5o6RBVkeoURsC6TFAg020lfe_UVUCOVX2Dmby6u6hztlF-0bHHcrBxH5dqsAIM79I1IcH-caRVruU8CMuMj201_CPb-rFw1EBCstznuzaiD1y3RZ3Q5FcUxjWHg/s400/P9222594_tonemapped.jpg)
I deleted it and went back to Topaz Adjust, just for a few minor tweaks.
Normally at this point I just hit the 'delete' button and decide to hunt for a better photograph.
This time I decided to see what I could do with what I had taken.
How far could I go to making this believable?
Copy the backround layer.
Copy some sky from another photo and put it on its own layer.
I used the sky and changed the layer blending mode to linear burn...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4y4cnG3ShjjW0_NmPqPjGAtjNzmciFJE4w2pUKe8BeHMWkCXIOVN71pN2JQPBP4YfHthi9tLG3N6aaxm-RWyag61dJH-2kk6jM2AkovuP59F2Cf17QmLSATL423c0oDgrY9ltew/s400/3.jpg)
so... I decreased the opacity to 87% and
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9QIOi2CroUIuhbC_KlIDocPP4qIo-p55MHgol75_1b2VvgfwKnK4MoM0QgpSRuk-aN_6HMXAej45c2Yz53N1RE90L_zV-qa-lAR-w4dmr0Sk8_EsN-VnQWSKXw3Mo9qrj19nR2Q/s400/4.jpg)
Much nicer.
At least the sky now had some hint of color and clouds and it looked fairly natural.
The gravel road itself, I felt could use a touch more detail.
I copied this layer and used Topaz ReMask to 'cut' out the road and isolate it.
Then I used Topaz Detail to bring out the 'gravel' texture and accent the tracks.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifoQUVfzb2cAQcjj6AS-txFdomItNTg7UaSRq5qkSOVF4_cqPuBtqPpcXTR-ADkBqgRuyVv6DbCgKz-212Po8FmlUA3oQExAAWpGnTgdgD0PhQYdk9MycQNjYm4hsZixqwCmpzAw/s400/5.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0E7IWCaU8I_Zg6-A4oXjHgHBdI8PY6_0UEtjBtRBoxahtWNI3SiU5qd1nVP1EmnBrhqHsMwtTneFiD0NP-gJahArBe-IaBFy8ccXuabhyiq4GVsfq99muXF-jupVRmB9pCL-ruA/s400/sample-editing.jpg)
A bit of editing really helped this little back road shot come a long way. :)
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