A few miles from my house stands an old stone barn. For years this structure fascinated me, standing alone in a field and visited by the occasional wedding party, but I was never able to find time to explore it for myself.

The past few years have seen a preservation effort undertaken to reinforce the structure and keep from collapse. Last month a new park was opened around the Barn, and my neighbor and I decided it was time to check it out for ourselves.

The day we went was a bit hazy, which left the sky washed out and the light on the ground weak. The barn itself is a wonderful subject, but given the “blah” atmosphere even it looked a bit dull in my photos. I opted, therefor, to concentrate on the details on the sky and leave the foreground for Lightroom’s Developing tools. The original is displayed below, the only adjustment applied is lens correction.

I then applied some general adjustments like white balance and highlights and filters, but there was no way I was going to bring any decent details out on the ground level by applying adjustments to the entire image. So I got out my Apple Pencil and drew out a selective edit on everything below the horizon. To this edit I increased the exposure, brought up the saturation, and clarity. I then traced out a second edit on the sky and reduced the exposure to help bring out more details. I’m still learning the subtleties of blending the filters where they overlap, but I am ecstatic with the results. I must play with this tool more.