The single most important thing in the world of photography is proper planning. Regardless of what kind of camera you own, or how expensive your lenses may be, nothing substitutes exceptional preparation. The following post will discuss the difference between a good photograph and a great photograph.
This is a photograph of the Chicago Bean in Millennium Park. As one can imagine and seen by the image posted above, it is quite the tourist attraction. Although this picture is not necessarily a bad one, this location screams for a picturesque postcard. Clearly shooting at 12:45pm was not ideal to be able to achieve the results we wanted.
This is where the better planning comes into play. At 7:15am not only did we eliminate the likeliness of tourists, but we also achieve a more flattering light that is not so harsh on the subject. This photograph was taken with a Canon EOS 5D and a 24-70 lens. Attached to the lens was a 3-stop nd graduated filter, which allows us to get detail in the sky while maintaining a proper exposure in the foreground. The picture above is straight out of camera, and it already looks better than the mid-day shot.
We duplicated the background layer and did the basic levels and curves adjustments as well as some sharpening and hue/saturation. The clone tool was also used to eliminate a couple of reflections from the Bean, and as well to clean some stains that were apparent on the ground.
The newest layer was duplicated once again, and a levels adjustment layer was created. The main focus of this layer was to enhance and darken the sky. The adjustments will affect the entire image, but just try to focus on the parts you are planning on mask layering, which for this purpose was for the sky only.
The completely finished results can be seen above. Hope you enjoyed the post.