Lake scene photo sample of several Photoshop techniques: Camera Raw filter, Content-aware Fill, and High Pass filter

Here's a photo I like, cropped slightly from its original JPG file. It was taken with an older pocket digital camera from Nikon. I also brightened it slightly using several sliders in the Camera Raw as a Smart Filter. My goal was to enhance colour on the umbrella, bring back highlights on the foreground trees, and return the grass to its original sunny-day colour.

Lake scene after brightening and colour correction using Camera Raw as a filter

Then I saw an opportunity to practice removing objects. Notice the blue tarp or something in the above photo, near the base of the right-hand foreground tree. Also notice it is missing from the photo below. This was an excellent situation for applying a Content-aware Fill. The tricky part was to make a selection that included the tarp, its shadow, and none of the tree. On my second try, the tarp was replaced with grass and no traces of tree bark or other foliage. The edge of the tree became hazy, however, so I quickly used the Clone Stamp tool to re-create a uniform sharp left-hand edge to the tree in that spot.

Lake scene after tarp removed using Content-aware Fill

Finally, the whole image was sharpened quickly and just slightly, as recommended by various photographers. I found that a duplicated layer-turned Smart Object with a High Pass filter applied did the trick. The grain in the tree and water surface are sharper. In my opinion, for decorative purposes this might serve, I prefer a softer glow as found in the middle image. Regardless, the following image definitely appears sharper to demonstrate how the High Pass filter affects images.

Lake scene after High Pass filter applied for shaper edges throughout