This is a RAW image with a few default touch ups from PS. My additional changes would be: First the flat sky has to go. Also the sky descends too low on the left. Sort of distracts when I'm looking at the exposed hay in the barn. And the contrast has to be just right to bring out the wood grain and whatever is left of the roof. I'll also want to show some detail of the hay, lighten up that whole interior area.
For the sky I don't want a true blue, I just need something with some lighter definition that what is shown here. Usually I try to get a image of sky from the area (if I remember and I think I'll need it) but I do have some stock images for emergencies. Fortunately I won't need much area. I'll go with this one.
I added some exposure to try to match the barn. I used On One to merge the two images. The masking tools in On One made this easy and quick. When I added the sky, the area on the left of the barn really didn't do me any favors. I thought that filling the area with some green-age would do the trick. But where to get it so it didn't look imported, or copied in. So, I just flipped a copy of the image. Filled in great. Same size, same colors. I just needed what is in the red.
First time I've ever done a three layer mask.
Worked out great. So my post merge looked like this.
Getting closer. Now I need to get some accent on the hay. For this I'll use Photomatix to process some HDR - but only for the hay. I'm not going to use it for the wood - although you could. I wound up using the Interior 3 pre-set, with some additional micro-smoothing.
I also added a bit of exposure because the next and final edit will dark the overall image a bit. To get my final touch I use NIK's HDR Efex. Over the lat few months I've learned to use just a touch of it - not the 100%. So, here's the final image.
It's not too overdone. Interesting to see how my tastes have evolved over time.
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