A little busy and a tad out of vertical alignment and I thought the color was lacking any real punch. Like you, though, I also love old barns, doorways, etc and will take a shot any chance I get. My edit is probably a bit too "cooked" for you but I was trying to add a little bit of mystery to the image, rather than a straight translation.
Chris,
The colors in my photo are probably a little more like the actual building . . . with that said I do like your edit, I did not notice
the vertical alignment until you fixed it and I do like the color pop for a more artistic look to the photo, can you share what you did to make the color pop? What editing software do you use, I use the lightroom 3.5. Thanks Chris, I love your eye for photography, it really helps beginners like myself.
Kathy
This is a relatively complicated process, but at the same time, quite doable. It is essentially one of the workflows my students use, so I think anyone can learn it. In a couple of days I will have it completed along with screen shots of each action and as well, all the variables which can be used in conjunction with the layers, layer masks and any other tomfoolery I come up with. While I have Lightroom, I don't much use it but since I do use CS5, you should be able to adjust accordingly.
Kathy - there's a video on how to selectively adjust colours on the Adobe TV website. Click here to take you to it. This should tell you everything you need to know about selectively adjusting the saturation, hues, and brightness/darkness of colours. If you're still stuck after that or have any questions, let me know and i'll see if i can help.
I agree with Chris on the picture being a bit busy and the colours being a bit flat over all. But it has the opportunity for a great perspective shot.
Mal,
Thanks for the info on the video, just got done watching it! I understand what you and Chris are saying about the color, without sounding to dumb can you point out what you think makes the photo to "busy"? This information will really help me out. Thanks for taking the time to look and advise.
Kathy
For me there is the lattice on the right (Chris removed it from his edit) and the branch that's comes into the door way which takes the focus away from the interesting pattern within the door.
Having said this, nature's not really my thing so I'm tending to focus more on the architectural lines and perspective Ultimately it's still your photo so I could be completely wrong
True, it is my photo but it is nice to see it through someone elses eyes, then I can experiment with the photo and see if the changes made look better through my own eyes (does that makes sense?) It will also help me on future photos. I appreciate the suggestions.
Kathy
I have attempted to make some of the suggested changes on the photo that I displayed in the above post, not sure if I really made a big difference or not. The first photo is the same one that is posted above, the second one is the re-edited version. Comments and Advice are welcome. Thanks.
Kathy
FIRST PHOTO
RE-EDITED PHOTO
Kathy, I think you have done a fine job with the edit. You have brought up the color some without going to far as it still looks natural and weathered. I do feel it is a tad over sharpened though. The plants look a bit prickly and the wood grain looks a bit rougher/sharp grained than natural aged wood.
Looks good Kathy. you've managed to really highlight the textures in the wood with your edit as well as bring out the colours.