Japanese garden

[Chataignier]

Garden Fukutsu-en near Limoges

[DanK]

An interesting composition and a gorgeous setting, but I think the image needs a lot of dodging and burning. A lot of the interesting detail is in shadows, with luminance values well below 20, while some of the uninteresting background is very bright. For example, contrast the tree immediately to the left of the tea house with the windows and other details of the tea house. You can't reverse this difference, but you can mitigate it.

For example, here is a quick and dirty version of one of the edits I'm suggesting. I did a rough selection of the tea house, minus the roof, and used that mask on two curves adjustment layers, one to brighten it and the second to impose a fairly severe S curve for more midtone contrast:

[Chataignier]

Thanks Dan, I like what you've done and can see that I could take it further. My excuse is that this was mainly a shoot with a model and I took a few shots of the garden without her at the end of the visit. I should have given them more attention - next rainy day...

[Jim A]

Nice pic of the Japanese structure and surrounds, David! Plus Dan has certainly enhanced it.