"Move a Little Closer" Romantic city skyline with couple at the lake.

 

"Move a Little Closer"

Photo Title:  Move a Little Closer.  The setting and atmosphere had great romantic potential. I thought if I was that guy and on a date, I'd be thinking of a way to "Move a Little Closer".

Setting:  Late afternoon overlooking Town Lake and the city skyline in Austin, Texas circa 2019.  

Equipment: Handheld Samsung  Note 9.

Software:  Affinity Photo 2.1 and Luminar Neo

Original Uncropped.
I saw the potential, but clearly too much happening up top. The branches create a nice framing effect, 
but the top is too long/wide.
There was also too much of the lake in the midground.
Notice the log in front of the woman and the camera behind them in the middle--both were 
cloned out of the scene.

1st crop with basic lighting edits.
Haven't finished cleaning up the lake
or color balance on the people.

Process:  Cropping the picture definitely improved the impact. There were too many distracting tree branches over the top of the frame. Cropping zoomed in the city skyline nicely but it was a bit fuzzy. So I used the Sharpening tool in LN at medium strength and that helped nicely.  But there was a problem with just cropping out the top, there was still too much lake and the couple and rock ledge were too small and not really in the picture. Using AP I used the selection brush tool with soft edges applied and selected the couple and rock ledge. I used the Refine option to smooth the edges some more before grabbing and adding it to a second layer.   Then I moved the couple and rock ledge layer up to fit them better in the frame.

Next, I used the healing brush to spot remove the various debris that was floating in the lake. Then I noticed there was a log floating in front of the girl just at her waistline. Using the clone tool I removed the log.

Next, I thought the Neo Presets darkened the couple too much.  I brushed a mask and selected their clothes and then adjusted the white balance and slightly lighten the colors.

I've read those new to photo editing make the mistake of doing too much. Add to that the power of software that doesn't require a degree to learn or 1,000 hours of experience to become proficient, and you'll find out it IS very easy to do too much.  I wonder what my five-year future self will think of these photos.  

Dark and Rich Preset