What a great image!
I know what you mean about some images requiring a lot of work. Although I don't use any 3rd-party plugins (I used to have the Nik suite but lost it when a previous PC crashed - I'll have to see if it's available for Photoshop Elements because I really liked their B&W conversions). But I use adjustment layers on almost every image, often multiple times: usually Brightness/Contrast and Hue/Saturation. I also use Content-Aware Fill on most images. And I apply sharpening on copies of layers. In all cases I control where the adjustments show by painting black, white, and various grays on the masks of the adjustment layers. Plus I have a standard set of adjustments I typically run in Camera Raw.
I think the most layers I've used on a single image is 17 to 20.
I know what you mean about some images requiring a lot of work. Although I don't use any 3rd-party plugins (I used to have the Nik suite but lost it when a previous PC crashed - I'll have to see if it's available for Photoshop Elements because I really liked their B&W conversions). But I use adjustment layers on almost every image, often multiple times: usually Brightness/Contrast and Hue/Saturation. I also use Content-Aware Fill on most images. And I apply sharpening on copies of layers. In all cases I control where the adjustments show by painting black, white, and various grays on the masks of the adjustment layers. Plus I have a standard set of adjustments I typically run in Camera Raw.
I think the most layers I've used on a single image is 17 to 20.
Don't blame me - I didn't vote for him!
Nikon D7500 with Nikkor 18-300 mm; PSE2021, PSCS5
Ny Flickr Albums