During an excursion by the town of Manaure, in the Colombian Goajira region, I found this wall very interesting because of the textures present in it, produced by the typical erosion of the constructions set by the sea. For the edition process, I focused on highlight the textures and the contrast between the colors, in order to highlight that gorgeous royal blue. So, what I basically did, in Photoshop CS3, was:
1 Duplicate the main layer.
2 New level and curve layers to darken the pale colors.
3 New bright and contrast layer to increase the contrast and luminosity.
4 Softly erased the dark section in the window, in order to get back the detail of the man’s head inside the room.
5 New saturation layer to increase, a little bit more, the impact of the vibrant colors.
I hope you enjoy not only this but the other submissions to After-Before Friday week 5 Forum, hosted by Stacy Fischer at Visual Venturing.
My Photolanguage 
Nice work Jaime!
Many thanks for your visist and kind words Katie!
Jaime, I thought I had left a comment on this post, but since I just found out in visiting Manal’s blog that I hadn’t left one on her ABFriday post, I thought I’d better check yours. Yikes! My apologies. I think it might be better if I don’t include my thoughts in reply to your submission emails as I’ve apparently confused myself about post comments 😉
Anyway, first, as always, thanks for your continuing support of ABFriday! You are a wonderful blogging friend 🙂 Second, as I believe I mentioned in my email, I love the textures of the wall, and the vibrant blue of the after image helps make the shadow of the window pop. That you captured just a small portion of the man’s head in the window is an added bonus, as it makes me wonder what he is doing. I might have played with that area just a bit more. In terms of what I do in Lightroom (since I’m not a PS user), I would have tried an adjustment brush just on the man’s head to open up the shadows a little bit more, and to increase the clarity and highlights. Doing so would add more definition to that element of the photo and add more to the visual interest. Anyway, just my two cents 🙂
No apologies required Stacy. This must be a free sincere sharing; so, forgetfulness, not commenting, not liking, is also valid!
Moreover, your two cents are very much welcome, I have to say you did a fabulous job post editing that area of the window. Now, I have two thoughts in the image. On one side, I like (your) better definition of the man head very similar to the textures and colors of the wall; definitely, it adds more to the “visual” interest of the image. But, on the other side, I find my (in that specific area) fainter version more mysterious as you are more intrigued about who is, and what is going on in there. Thanks a lot for your time and interest my good blogging friend!
The mystery of the man is the definite issue, and you’re correct, the fainter version lends more of that air. I wasn’t sure which you would like better, but experimenting is fun, if for no other reason than to reinforce our original choices 🙂 And my pleasure, Jaime!