The original image (below) was very busy and the light was backward of what I wanted. In simple steps, this is what I did.
- Cropped image.
- I used the Content Aware Fill tool in Photoshop to remove the pipe on upper right. There were other little spots to fix with this tool and the Clone tool.
- Added a 50% gray layer and low opacity dark brush (8%) to darken the foreground.
- Used the 50% gray layer with low opacity white brush (8%) to lighten the water. You could also achieve Steps #3 and 4 with the Radial Filter in Lightroom.. thanks to Tony Sweet for sharing that tool in his recent ebook. I do most of my work in Photoshop but this is a super option and easy to use.
- Finally took the image into Topaz Impression and used Impressionistic by Erin Applebee Photography.
This is actually a tiny waterfall in a beautiful woodsy area.