That was a beautiful evening at the nature. Light was glorious. Back-light greenery were shining in the deep shadows. And the photographs came out … dull and flat

Apply or don’t apply an art effects to a photograph?!

I think this question arise all the time. And as always the answer is — It is a matter of a personal choice!

I personally have a set of rules when I do apply it and when don’t

Here is an example of the art processing applied to a photograph. It is obvious that the photograph doesn’t have documentary value, so I bravely applied «finishing».

On my taste the actual photograph, after the basic color corrections, cleaning and etc. ,still was a bit dull and flat. The light was not communicating the glory of that evening. Greenery wasn’t shining and the light on the actual subject and surrounding became even.

The goal of the art post-processing was to increase glow in the greenery, but in a way that it wouldn’t be destructive, focus viewer on the main subject and may be to add a bit of drama.

Please, be a judge!