While I like to think that my photography itself has been getting better, post processing is definitely an area where I'm mostly clueless. I can usually see what is wrong with a picture, but not exactly how to correct it all, so I'm looking for a few tips and I think the easiest way would be with an example (full JPEG version on the clickthrough, I unfortunately no longer have the RAW file):


500D, 17-55 f/2.8, shot at 1/250, f/6.4, 42mmm ISO100

There are obviously a few glaring things that are wrong, the sky is blown out for example. Would it be better to solve it by cropping or by pseudo-HDR on a single image (I quite like how the successive mountainsides fade more and more into the haze on the right side...)? I'm also not quite sure of the tree directly behind the cow, although this is probably not easy to fix in post...

Another question I have and this probably comes down more to personal preference...how would you edit this image? I'm kind of interested to see what others would do with it.

Thanks!