Eliminating unwanted details

[C.C.Jordan]

I took a shot of an ancient hay rake on an old farm in Setuaket, Long Island. The image was
marred by power lines that were highlighted by the afternoon sun. Using Photoshop's Healing
Brush, I was able to remove the power lines. I made some subtle changes with the color curves
as well. Nonetheless, the photo is still too flat, too lacking in color. I realize that there isn't much
color remaining in winter, but I still feel the image needs some further enhancement. Any ideas?

Original on top, enhanced below.

[img width=800 height=600]http://home.att.net/~c.c.jordan/Setauket1.jpg[/img]

[img width=800 height=600]http://home.att.net/~c.c.jordan/Setauket2.jpg[/img]

My regards,

C.C. Jordan

[happusa]

I think I would have opened the aperture some to reduce the depth of field. The background is very distracting. IMHO

good subject material.

[ohenry]

In the first one, I used levels to bring up the black point just a tad, then added a fairly aggressive S curve in Curves.


[img width=800 height=600]http://www.never3putt.com/photos/Setauket2-1.jpg[/img]


In the second one, I used PK Color 2 to apply a darken green filter.


[img width=800 height=600]http://www.never3putt.com/photos/Setauket2.jpg[/img]


The changes were obvioius when I had it in PS and could turn layers on and off to compare. On here, it's a bit more difficult to see the slight changes.

[happusa]

Used blur tool and cropped
[img][/img]

[C.C.Jordan]

Thanks for the help folks, it's certainly appreciated.

I took the second image and applied blur where needed to change the apparent DOF and reduce
the background clutter. Then, I worked on the color curves to draw out some brighter color.

Here's the two, with the latest on bottom.

[img width=800 height=600]http://home.att.net/~c.c.jordan/Setauket2.jpg[/img]

[img width=800 height=600]http://home.att.net/~c.c.jordan/Setauket3.jpg[/img]

My regards,

C.C. Jordan