My design thoughts/process: I used my sister's camera to take a bunch of pictures that I could use for an advertising project I've been working on for my internship. I thought for sure, my sister's camera would take better pictures than my iPhone. However, when I tried to create alpha channels to separate the highlights and shadows, I could only get 2 alpha channels of contrasts/shadows at most. Some pictures wouldn't even let me get two layers. The few pictures I took with my iPhone were able to get three or four alpha channels of contrasts/shadows. From this experience I learned first hand the importance of starting with a good high resolution picture. Without a good picture, there's only so much you can do to edit.
Photoshop tools used: To begin, I created highlight/shadow alpha channels. Then I used adjustment layers to brighten up the picture and add in contrast. The original picture looked very washed out and mono-toned. Then I added the "explore more" text. Because, the background was pretty busy I added a rectangle behind the text to make it stand out. I lowered the transparency to make the rectangle more subtle. (I didn't want the rectangle to be the focal point. I wanted the text to be the focal point.) I decided to center the text because I think it directs your eyes to look at the background instead of just noticing the girl snowshoeing. Also, it was the best place to put the text without covering anything important in the picture. Finally, I added the Stokes Nature Center logo to the bottom right corner.