One of my favorite things is to take the images I captured from my camera and put them in a workflow through two or three different photo editing applications. I find it most satisfying to pull out the digital information within an image to improve its impact or simply bring it to look as I envisioned when I took the shot.

For today’s challenge, please feature three or four images in your gallery that you tweaked for whatever reason as well as the original image straight out of the camera. The edits don’t have to be massive, maybe just cropping to remove unwanted items or reformatting the image size. Or perhaps you made significant edits to create what I like to call an altered reality where you removed or replaced components in the image, changed the color or tone, or otherwise created an entirely different look to the image.

My opening photo is the final edit of a view captured during a drive through Flaming Gorge National Recreational Area in Utah. Our timing was perfect, and the autumn colors were spectacular. The backlit scene underexposed the trees in the foreground. I used Luminar Neo’s Develop module to reduce the highlights that overexposed the stream, then tweaked the Enhance AI tool. That control usually brings up the exposure in the foreground. The adjustment returned the intense yellow leaves translucent in the bright sunshine.

On our fall Canadian cruise out of New York, we were pleasantly surprised to pass Liberty Island and Lady Liberty on our sail down the Hudson River toward the Atlantic Ocean. Again, a strong backlight puts the subject in the shadows. Given the subject and the harsh midday sun, I decided an alternate reality would set the image apart from the many other shots captured by cruisers as we passed the iconic symbol.

Skylum Software’s creative asset membership includes a monthly selection of skies and presets. I don’t use presets much, so I don’t download them, but I usually download the sky packages. I selected a late golden hour sky with the sun on the right. As the light hitting the island was from the left, I flipped the sky to place the sunlight more realistically.

Not entirely happy with the result, I returned to the image and reworked it. This time, I cropped the image to get closer to Liberty Island. I selected a more subdued sunset with a more pastel shade of gold. I used the Relight option in the sky replacement tool to add warm tones to the sunlight on the statue and the left side of Liberty Island. Another improvement with this sky is that the brightest part looks to be placed more to the left, giving a more accurate light source direction than on my first attempt.

I’m curious to know which of these two alterations is better. Feel free to comment below. You also won’t hurt my feelings if you tell me you prefer the original over the versions with an altered sky.

Moving to western New York, we visited Niagara Falls. We sampled most of the attractions available to visitors on the United States and Canadian sides of the falls. I chose to share a view from the Cave of the Winds attraction. Though the cave is no longer there, visitors ride an elevator down, don rain gear, and exit to an area below Bridal Veil Falls. From there, a wooden staircase with several levels draws guests higher and closer to the rushing water. The upper deck is the Hurricane Deck, where you can be sure you will get thoroughly sprayed with the mist from the falls.

I decided that the partial view of the decking was distracting from the majesty of the falls. I sent the image from Adobe Lightroom Classic to Adobe Photoshop to use Photoshop’s Generative Fill tool to remove the part of the wooden structure covering about 15 percent of the image. I also reduced the highlights from the strongly backlit sky and increased the contrast slightly. I was careful with that adjustment, though, as that tool also removed some of the haze created by the mist. Photoshop added a sharply defined rock in place of the decking.

I also tried a second version of this photo to compare Photoshop’s Generative Fill with Luminar Neo’s Gen-Erase module. Neo’s version of the altered reality also replaced the deck with a rock, but the AI software put it further in the background, partially obscured by the mist. Gen-Erase also modified the foreground directly in front of the decking it removed.

For a closer look at these images in 2K HD, you can check out my gallery on Flickr here. Last week, Sofia challenged us with Water in Motion. I could have used this edited image in that gallery but decided to use it here instead. Next week, Donna of https://windkisses.com/ will host the challenge. You can find more information here if you want to join the fun.

John Steiner