I took this shot years ago when I visited Heisler Park in Laguna, California. You can see one of my older shots from the same location in Laguna here. Initially, I decided not to edit this one because I failed to appreciate how my earlier edits looked. Fortunately, I recently decided to go through several of my older pictures and I rediscovered this gem. Over the years, I found that I learned a lot more about how to edit photos and how to retain the quality of the image without making the finished product look fake. As a result, I like going through my older photos because I find many of them are more valuable then I initially thought.
Overall, I completed almost all of my editing for this photo in Lightroom. My editing mainly consisted of shadow and highlight adjustments and general color alterations. The only adjustments that I made in Photoshop was applying a gradient map and enhancing the glare on the sunset. I also did a little dodging and burning on some of the plants and applied a slight vignette. If you ever want great editing tutorials, I suggest checking out Phlearn. Hope you like the results.
