Here, I do some horrible things to Half Dome!

I was fixing up and color-correcting a scanned slide of Half Dome, and then got to tinkering.... As you can see, it's just horrible! Dreadful! But some of the techniques used were fun... And I think it helps to have fun while using and learning Photoshop!

Original, unadulterated photo of Half Dome. It looks so nice and normal and pristine, doesn't it?

On a new layer, I do the "filter - Render - Clouds" thing, using a dark blue and off-white as my two colors. I keep this layer hidden for now.

Using the Magic Wand tool, I select areas of this picture, willy-nilly. I use "Color Balance" and "Levels" to change the color cast (in horrible, horrible ways) to these selected areas. Particularly, Half Dome, the trees, and the foliage in the foreground. When they are sufficiently wretched, I am satisfied. Lastly, I then make a selection of the entire sky area in the Half Dome picture.

I now go to the new clouds layer that I had hidden, (and I keep the selection I made of the Half Dome picture's sky area still active). I "copy" the clouds from the clouds layer, and "paste" them onto the whacked-out Half Dome layer. Voila! Now Half Dome has a new sky! (Another way to do the clouds/sky thing is to delete the original sky from the Half Dome picture, which will make the new clouds layer show through underneath).

I created a new layer. I airbrush some new wispy clouds over the sky area, and a little over Half Dome. I use Gaussian Blur to make them blend a little better. Done!

Horrid, isn't it?

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