No problem =) Just so you know, i really suck at explaining and i am in no way educated in photoshop and such. I just like to mess around with it and have been doing so ever since i got a copy for my birthday ages ago. Self taught.
Well, lets see. It is so much easier when one does it than actually writing about it. =)
First thing i did was create a new layer and a layer mask where i painted on some more chrome on the jet, basicly selecting the layer mask and painting on white. It is important to paint in the layer mask and not the actual layer with the image.. Then i blurred out the the effect with gaussian blur to smoothen it out. I like shiny stuff
After that i created a vignette but its not really visible in the pic. I wanted to have a larger spectrum of shades in the distance. I did this by drawing out the vignette hand marquee tool and messing around with the different channel levels. In the end it didnt really matter much since i decided to go with the pop out frame.
Then i played around with the channel curves. Making a curve that resembles an S basicly. What the S does is making the collors more vivid and the lightning more realistic according to me. It also creates some of that cartoonish effect with the darker blacks and so on.
Since the image at this moment is really collorful i ad a new layer over it and fill it with black. I select HUE in the layers dropdown menu and drop the opacity to 25%. This tones the vivid colors down but keeps some of the cartoonish effect.
puhhh, breather
After merging all the layers i change the image mode to Lab Color and select the lightning channel. Then i sharpen the shadows, the darks and all the lightning in the image with an unsharp mask. This can create some really amazing visiual effects if used excessively.
I change the image mode back to RGB Color. Depending on how i feel about the image i might change the Hue/Saturation levels. I also added some diffused glow and some grain.
Now the main image is done. On to the frame, the easiest part of it all. I just made a rectangular shape with the marquee tool and then subracted a smaller rectangle from the shape and filled it with white. I then put some shadow on it and deleted the parts around the image that are not supposed to be inside of the frame. I also manually added shadows under the wing that is outside the frame. Basicly drawing a black line and blurring it out to look similar to the shadows around the frame.
That should be everything i think...
I dont know if this will be of any help or use to anyone... I warned you, i suck at explaining.