Winter in Yorkshire

This is a typical English lower ground winter scene - no snow, and still quite a bit of colour around, especially in the grass. As someone on Flickr commented, but for the bare tree branches you would hardly know it is winter. I liked the little winding path with a stream next to it leading the eye towards the house, and I also liked the wooden fence posts. What I did not like and what nearly made me discard the image was the poor winter light making the scene look grey and drab. I knew I had to do something drastic to save this image. I decided to process it in a totally new and unusual way, not in my Elements 12 which I normally do, but online, in ipiccy.com. I played around and tried different things. I applied lens blur and hdr effects, a texture, a bird brush and can't remember what else, and ended up with this airy, I thought quite a creative watercolour look. I was pleased I managed to give a rather dull looking photo a new lease of life.

AFTER

BEFORE