How to do this in CS5?

Question

Using the free snapseed app I edited this photo but can't figure out how to do it in photoshop to get the same effect. Snapseed saves such small files they're pretty much useless but I love how this looks. It's going to involve using layers to get an HDR effect, but even doing that I can't come up with these results.

Answer 1

j_riederer wrote:
The only reason I like this effect is because I want to make it into a puzzle and don't want it to look like a photograph. I want it to have a painting kind of quality instead.
You don't have to explain yourself.   Photography is an art form, not a contest, you can do whatever you like.  The ease of digital photography, relatively low cost of equipment these days, and prolific nature of the internet seems to rankle a lot of "hard core photographers" to the point where they need to critique everything, even when one wasn't requested.
As others said, it's a pretty typical pseudo HDR look that is just (over) boosting the shadows and the saturation then applying heavy saturation.  You can play around with curves, saturation, and put on a high pass filter and do it yourself.  Or try something like Topaz Adjust and click through various presets.