Oh, the magic of Photoshop! This is the before and after of and image of a landscape. The challenge was to brighten the image and sharpen it slightly.
First, I enhanced the overall brightness and contrast. Next, I decided to sharpen the rocks in the foreground. I selected the front half of the rocks with the Lasso tool, and then used the Unsharp Mask filter to add a subtle sharpening effect. When I was satisfied with the rocks, I moved on to the line of clouds at the top of the image, replacing the gray clouds with blue sky. Next, I wanted to brighten the sky, so I selected it, being careful not to get the mountains too, and painted it with the Dodge tool. Finally, I added a Color Balance layer and a Brightness/Contrast layer to give the image a little more pop. The color balance gave the sand and rocks a slightly more yellow/brown tone and the brightness/contrast gave a little more emphasis to details on the mountain and rocks.
