This was created by compositing three separate images. The Pyramids of Egypt, The Seas of Dahab and Rutland Water. Many adjustment layers and masks were needed in an attempt to balance the shot as each component was taken with different lighting conditions at different angles with different cameras in different countries.

This is Braunston in Rutland, UK. It is a beautiful old English village. To make it look a little older I removed all the pylons, wires, concrete and tarmac. To add some colour to the sky I used the color range tool to select the bright areas of the sky. This selection was used to create a mask which was applied to a gradient. The Blend mode Multiply was used as this is the most forgiving when it comes to masks of light colours over dark colours. A rough mask set to Multiply will not cover the branches or leave a halo. The worst that can happen is the thinnest branches get a slight hint of blue. Even this could be argued as a natural effect of soft focus so the end result looks natural.

This was taken at Rutland Water in 2010. As with most images these days I used Camera RAW to do the main processing. Camera RAW produces higher quality images than If you did the same adjustments in Photoshop. This is because it uses the RAW data from the camera which contains more information than a processed 8 bit image. Photoshop comes into its own when effecting localized areas of the image like retouching. For global changes its better to use Camera RAW. These are the split toning settings used to change the sky and water colour.

This Purple Aubretia was shot at londonthorpe just over one month ago. I used Camera RAW to process the image.

The first Blue Bells have started. This shot was taken 3 days ago in Barnsdale Wood Rultand, England, UK.

The first signs of spring at the end of our garden in the UK. I’m not sure what this is a bud of but it could be this Hawthorn Bush I shot last summer. I used a macro lens to shot this small subject. Macro lenses don’t magnify much but they do allow you to focus at a very short distance so you can get close to your subject. This image barely needed any Photoshopping so there is no before and after to show you this time.

This is the Hawthorn Blossom at the end of our garden in the UK. I tried to get the focal plane through the Stamen but is in front of the petals. To emphasize the anther at the tips I needed to increase the mid range contrast. This can be done with the clarity slider in Camera RAW or In Photoshop by using a high pass layer set to overlay blend mode. I never realized these two methods use the same technique until I read about it in this book. Thanks to Fliss and Alex for the birthday present. In this example I imported the image as a smart object. This means you can edit the RAW camera data in Photoshop and you reduce the chance of degrading the image. In this example I used a smart filter also which allows you to go back and change settings after they have been applied.

We went for a walk today and Karen spotted this Jew’s Ear Fungus in a small patch of trees. It was taken around midday on a cloudy day in the shade. These are all factors which make it the bluest that daylight gets. The cameras auto white balance does not know its looking at a red object under blue light. In an attempt to balance the image it set the colour temperature to 3850K. Instead of changing the colour temperature a Color Balance layer was used to bring back the hues of the fungus and the wood.

We went for a walk in Rutland today. Karen spotted these Crocuses outside a cottage. I have used Orton Effect and Desaturation layers in an attempt to make the flowers stand out of the busy background.

I have never been lucky enough to see a Red Squirrel in the UK. The closest I could get was to disguise one of our common gray squirrels. I used liquify to change the shape of the face and lengthen the ears. A new layer with a blend mode set to color is used to change the fur to a woody brown hue while keeping the texture.