How it was Made - Instagram Winner

Last week's Instagram Challenge was "EARTH." One of my winners was this beautiful photo from Sky Neary.http://instagram.com/p/5Ndm6yHRet/Sky reached out to let me know exactly how he captured/created this image-I was on a last minute backpacking trip to Nevada, Utah, and Arizona area with a friend and traveling for a week. This photograph was created on the last day of our trip right outside Las Vegas. This landscape is in Red Rock Canyon National Park.After taking the image I edited it in photoshop to turn day into night

Turn photograph from day to night:

First you want to desaturate.  A good starting point is half-way with the desaturate (example -50) and adjust from there.  This example works both in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Next you need to adjust Exposure or Brightness depending on if you are in photoshop or lightroom and you want to bring them down (slide left).  Now you want to slide your contrast far to the right typically all the way for photoshop and lightroom.

Once you adjust exposure/brightness and contrast. You want to double check your colors due to the contrast slider being adjusted you might want to desaturate specific colors more.

Remember every photograph is different so you might want to go back and adjust to improve the overall look of the photograph.

and then blended a Milky Way photograph I took on the same tripI ended with this.I like to think that this is what it looks like if you were here at night.-Sky You can see more of Sky's work at http://www.skynearyphotography.com/Thanks Sky!  Have you made and or captured a photo you are particularly proud of? I'd be happy to share it here with a write-up of your method.  Just use the contact form to reach out to me.