This was taken on the Alpine Loop up American Fork Canyon, Utah. American Fork Canyon is about a 45-60 minute drive from Salt Lake City, Utah. It's a great place to spend a few hours on a nice scenic drive. This picture required a lot of Photoshop to enhance. The original picture was very flat looking. The foreground was too dark, though by simply increasing the contrast, altering the layers, or changing the contrast, it washed out the clouds and background. To get the desired effect, I duplicated the original layer. On the new layer, I altered the levels so that the foreground looked good and the background was almost completely washed out. Then I created a layer mask and used the gradient tool to paint on a gradient. With a layer mask, the idea is that anything black is seen, anything white is hidden, and anything gray is partly opaque depending on how dark the gray is. So by using the gradient, it effectively hid the washed out sky and slowly transitioned to the brighter foreground. This is a great technique to add depth to your seemingly flat pictures.
