Busy Day in Graz

I headed to the hauptplatz in the old part of Graz, Austria, to pick up an afternoon snack (consisting of wurst, of course), and to capture some images. I was hoping for better light since the sun had just emerged after thunderstorms that made things very dark just a little while ago. The light wasn't all that great, but the platz was bustling with activity, so I wandered around and captured a few images of the scene. I played with this one for quite a while in Photoshop before finally settling on a look I liked...

Addendum 1: I've since learned that the sign at the left side of the image reads: "Animals are creatures, not food." So I wasn't exactly being sensitive when I wrote about eating a wurst. But I didn't know!

Addendum 2: As Willis requested (and as I should have included from the start), here's a description of the adjustments I applied to this image:

I started with a RAW capture, of course, and converted that capture with Adobe Camera Raw, using normal adjustments except for the Clarity control. I increased Clarity to the maximum value of +100 to exaggerate the detail in the image.

I then applied a very exaggerated sharpening with Smart Sharpen, on a copy of the Background image layer. I set the Amount to the maximum of 500%, and the Radius to a relatively high value of 9 pixels in this case.

Next, I created another copy of the Background image layer but moved that layer above the sharpened layer. I applied a Gaussian Blur at a very high setting (60 pixels in this particular case), but reduced the Opacity for this layer to about 70%.

The above two adjustments provided some enhanced local area contrast while also introducing an ethereal glow. The next step was to adjust the colors a bit. In this case I added a Vibrance adjustment and increased the Vibrance value to the maximum of +100. I then slightly reduced the Saturation value (just down to -12 in this case) to bring down the most highly saturated colors.

Finally I applied a Curves adjustment, mostly brightening up the relatively bright areas of the image.

The result was this sort of painterly and ethereal image that in my mind evokes something of a Normal Rockwell painting, if I may be so bold as to make this undeserved comparison.