Mountain road

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I like this for several reasons. First, it looks like a painting filter has been applied. That gives it an artistic quality. Second, the composition is solid. Third, the exposure is accurate and thus the color is vibrant. My question is whether or not the painting effect is simply a global application or is the effect rendered locally by hand. Thanks!

Thanks for your comments - I am pleased you like this image : As a matter of interest, no painting effect was applied apart from the use of the sponge tool in PS elements. This was used to increase the saturation of all areas apart from the sky which I thought was naturally saturated more than enough. http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5758720 is another version of this shot, with no selective saturation, which received higher ratings so I wonder if my revisions were worthwhile