I can see the reflections in the water, but on my screen, the pond is so dark I can’t really see much of it. It might look more “enchanted” if it was lighter, so we can see it better? Just a thought.
Really? I can see beautiful reflections. If you don’t see that detail it sounds like you need to calibrate and profile your monitor.
First glance hmmm not much to see here but on closer inspection nice mystical photo
Well, yes I can see, and posted about, how great the reflections are, but to me, the water around the reflections (and some areas above the pond) seem darker than necessary.
I have two screens, a calibrated ASUS 27" display, and a standard MacBook Pro 14" display. Depending on a lot of things, the MacBook adjusts to the room lighting, so I do all my editing on the larger (calibrated) display.
If I make your image larger, it gets better (to me). If I block the lower part of the image, it gets better. Maybe my eyes are reacting to the brightness of the foreground. If I block that, using the text block as I’m posting this reply, then the pond suddenly appears lighter and more impressive. Without the very bright foreground I think I see what you want me to see.
If you look at the image at a large enough size, you will notice that there is detail and texture almost everywhere.
I quickly marked the only areas that are really black.
Nice - it looks like you’ve made gentle use of the Orton effect. 
I’m happy to admit that I like the Orton effect. Even if it wasn’t really intended here. 
had to google that agree after reading what it means
“Orton effect”???
I need to look that up later today.
Sounds fascinating, based on the above posts.
I guess I now need to find a way (if possible) do do this from within PhotoLab.
I’ve created a preset that I can post when I get back
I don’t know if it’s the same. I found this one here in the forum at some point.
Orton.preset (3,4 KB)
I’m not at home yet but that looks likely
Yes I believe that’s the one. I use @Joanna’s preset occasionally. In addition, I tend to use the Luminosity mask as needed to modify the lighting to get a little closer to my understanding of the original concept. I have an example I created earlier today which I can post later when I get home. I’m not certain how close my image comes to the original concept but, in any case, I like the effect. I think it may be lacking a bit in the amount of background softness
Mark
Here’s a link to the image that I demonstrated it with…
But do remember that it may not work on everything and may need fine tuning.
Mike,
As promised, here is an image edited using @Joanna’s Orton preset. I also used the Luminosity mask to provide a bit more “glow”. Filmpack is required, and for those interested in also using the Luminosity mask, it must be FilmPack 7. Not sure how “Orton” the results are, but I like the effect.
The image was captured at around 6 pm last Friday September 6th. The sky was mostly cloudy.
Mark
