Playing With Photos

I haven't had much time to play with Photoshop recently but was inspired by some saturation/color play Connie (Dirty Footprints Studio) had recently done. Here's some examples, for those who haven't done digital manipulation, of what a few seconds can do:

1) Playing with Levels (usually if any adjustments are done to a photo, this is my first stop). Maintaining the realism of the photo, just bumping it up a notch:

Original

After Levels adjustment & action to "burn" edges of photo. That's it!

(This is the side of a bench. I was captivated by the story of the tree that was used and what it saw in all of those years it stood. A lot of rings...a lot of years...a lot of history.)

2) It's also great fun completely changing the colors & feel of a photo. It's great using filters to create "drawings" and other surreal images but also interesting to try and maintain some realism while drastically altering the photo. Again, I just played with Levels in this photo.

Original

After playing with Levels:

Fun stuff, eh?