And we have another Monday here, so another processing post. But before I start, I would like to remind you that tomorrow is the last day to join my video tutorial giveaway. Don’t forget to do that if you haven’t done so yet :)

But let’s get back to the photo. For today I chosen this blue hour photo of the Charles bridge in Prague. Of course the Charles bridge is always busy, but from this square, right next to it, it does not looks to that much. So let’s take a lot at the final ant the original 0EV exposure first.

 
As you can see on the original one, it really lacks a proper white balance, contrast, and some spots are too dark or too bright. So I started the same way as I always do. Loaded all the photos into Lightroom for first tweaks.

 
On the tweaked image you can see what everything I changed. I corrected the horizon and white ballance. I applied the lens correction and removed chromatic abberations. I then exported all the layers into Photoshop and continued from there (layers numbered from bottom up)

1. 0EV exposure
2. -1EV exposure from which I darkened the bright spots of the photo
3. -2EV exposure to darken them even more
4. +2EV exposure to brighten the foreground area and the bridge

This finished the blending stage, as you can see on this screenshot.

 

5. merged layer, with motion blue applied to it from which I masked the water, giving it a more softer feel
6. added more contrast to the midtones of the photo
7+8. added glow to the photo (check out my tutorial on how to do it)
9. Color Efex Pro contrast filter, to get more local contrast in the photo
10. Added more structure using the high pass filter
11. Brightened the darkest areas a little
12. Added a little bit of overall contrast

 
And that’s all I did with this image. To find out more on how I edit, check out the guides and before after categories on this blog, or check out my video tutorial series here: