PP Help

[Rod Boughton]

Hi, please bear with me I'm new to post processing, but would like some advice. Ive probably done this all wrong but let me explain.

I took this shot of a local 12th century church :-

I then wanted to convert it to B&W so i did a straight conversion using Capture NX2 :-

Then what i wanted was to make it look scary, foreboding, menacing, the sort of place you see in horror movies, but i thought the trees each side were too dark so i used Photoshop Elements to lighten the trees using enhance and fill flash, then i wanted to darken the sky so i did that, but the top edges of the trees look frazzled. Is there a better way or i should say proper way to do this? I also wanted to add some mist, but haven't figured that out yet. Here's the result so far :-

Or, can anyone suggest another way to get the result i'm after, i have a collection of old churches that i would like to make look scary.

Rod

 

[wallyboy]

two minutes in pe9

levels de saturate,
take down brightness,
create new layer,render clouds, lower opacity, for mist effect,

 

[swanseamale47]

I went for a more contrasty B+W with mist (similar to walters)

 

[Suvv]

[/IMG]

As you have Capture NX2:
Use Shadow Protection to bring out detail in the trees.
Place 2 Colour Control Points on the blue patches of the sky, select both points and reduce brightness to darken the sky.
Convert to B&W

Add the mist in Elements

 

[Rod Boughton]

Thanks guys i'll have another play, i knew i was doing it the wrong way, just didn't know the right way.