Blue Ridge Parkway Images - 4/9/2015

Blue Ridge Parkway Abbott Lake Peaks of Otter Photoshop cc Photo Edits

Bridge at Abbott Lake - Peaks of Otter Lodge on the Blue Ridge Parkway - 4/9/2015 - Edited

Peaks of Otter located on the Blue Ridge Parkway - This is a small bridge located on Abbott Lake behind the Peaks of Otter Lodge. It was a foggy day and one in which some unique photos could be captured. For this image I applied some very simple Photoshop edits to enhance the color but continue to capture the fog. I duplicated the original image and then applied a blending option of Overlay while decreasing the opacity of this layer to 60%. I then applied an adjustment layer to control the brightness and contrast. I pulled the brightness up to 16 and pulled the contrast down to -50. The contrast adjustment was very extreme but it seemed to do the trick. As you can see from the orignial below not much was needed but it was important to bring the bridge area to the forefront and that is exactly what I tried to do.

Bridge at Abbott Lake - Peaks of Otter Lodge on the Blue Ridge Parkway - 4/9/2015 - Original

Bridge on Abbott Lake - Peaks of Otter - 4/9/2015

Island area on Abbott Lake - Peaks of Otter Blue Ridge Parkway - 4/9/2015 - Edited

Peaks of Otter located on the Blue Ridge Parkway - Very subtle difference between the original below and the edited above. I wanted to balance out the brightness between the grass and the foggy area. Using Photoshop I duplicated the original and applied a blending mode of screen set at 25% opacity. Then I applied a vibrance adjustment layer with vibrance set at +39 and saturation set at -17. Again very subtle changes here.

Island area on Abbott Lake - Peaks of Otter Blue Ridge Parkway - 4/9/2015 - Original

Tree on Abbott Lake - Peaks of Otter Blue Ridge Parkway - 4/9/2015 - Edited

Peaks of Otter Located on the Blue Ridge Parkway - The image below is screaming for some color! Once again using Photoshop I edited by duplicating the image and then applying a soft light blending mode at 100% opacity. I then duplicated this layer to multiply the effect. Very minor changes to enhance the color that is there and waiting to come out.

Tree on Abbott Lake - Peaks of Otter Blue Ridge Parkway - 4/9/2015 - Original

Blue Ridge Mountains Near Natural Bridge, Virginia - Overlooking the Cave Mountain Lake Area - 4/9/2015 - Edited

Blue Ridge Parkway Mountains - Near Natural Bridge in Virginia - This image was shot on top of a side road to the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a very foggy day but a beautiful shot. In the edit I wanted to bring out the blues in the sky. In Photoshop I duplicated the original image and created a layer mask for the sky area including the moutains in the distance. I applied a color burn blend mode with 18% opacity. I duplicated this layer to increase the enhancement just a bit. Next I created a hue/saturation adjustment layer for the mask section of the sky and distant mountain area. Without changing any of the color setting I go this really nice blue in the sky and mountain range area.