Editing Photos - A whole new world

Well I have had a bit of time to pay with Lightroom 3 and now even import pics into Photoshop and make further adjustments and then I have managed to play with my new toy the Topaz Adjust 4 filter available here at Topaz Labs.
The Topaz adjust is a FILTER which is used in conjunction with other adjustments in Photoshop, you can mask and also adjust the opacity.

Like this photo here

Taken at the Sale Botanical Gardens earlier in the year, it is an ok pic, but lacks the right lighting and perhaps is quite flat color wise.

I firstly put the photo into Lightroom and adjusted the exposure and the color saturation a little and added a gradient to darken the sky and make it look at bit more dramatic.

At this point I was reasonably happy as I had lifted the pic a bit and made it brighter and less flat. BUT I thought for fun I would see what Topaz could do but putting it into Photoshop and adding the filter

The best part is that I could add a mask and adjust sections of the pic as required to make it seem more realistic, but it certainly "pops" out at you more now.

As far as realism goes, you can make it look more or less realistic, but the aim is to brighten it and lose the "flatness" of the original and uninspiring image.

Just a fun way to learn. I have been getting into Scott Kelby's book on Lightroom and it has a lot of great options.........Just have to keep practising. :)