What I Am Working On: Subtle Edits

This photo was taken on July 24, 2016. A lovely summer day at the White Cliffs of Dover:

ISO 160 f/6.3 1/600sec 50mm

I pulled it out to edit it this morning. I love this landscape, I find it timeless and calming. I wanted to hang on to those feelings when it came to the edit. What I find interesting is that sometimes subtle edits can be pretty complex behind the scenes. My final edit below has six layers. Separating out edits onto different layers is something that I do frequently particularly with photos like this. The logic behind that being that if there is a particular piece of editing, say the clarity, that was working but now isn’t in combination with other edits applied, it is easier to go back and make that single adjustment if it’s on its own layer. I’ve added the Luminar Look, Touch of Gold Faded, onto this file.  I liked the idea of that particular look, but it was too strong for this particular image so I altered the sliders within that look to something more subtle. That is the beauty of presets, they can be a really helpful starting point.

The edited version:

ISO 160 f/6.3 1/600sec 50mm

Your thoughts or questions are welcome below.

Added to Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, All Wet.

Cheers!