We had our first snow of 2012 overnight - a light dusting of about 3 inches total. I was rather short on time for a photo, today, so I headed to nearby Governor Notte Park for a shot of the bridge over this man-made waterfall. When I saw all the shadows, I immediately thought "black and white." I ran it through Redynamix - my HDR filter - to bring out the full range of colors. I then added the background sandstone texture. I find I really like a texture as opposed to the smooth, flat photos of a traditional image. I may get sick of them at some point, but for now you're stuck with me in this "texture phase."
Next, I added a gradient layer to convert this to a greyscale image. Now, a photo workshop I attended emphasized the need in a good black and white image to show pure black and pure white in the photo. I played with the levels a bit to do just that, even though it meant giving an overexposed feel to some of the foreground snow. After seeing the black and white, I decided to add a bit of a twist to it. A cooling filter as the last layer gave it the blue monochrome you see here. I've always liked the effect of a cooling filter on a black and white image, which is why I always keep my black and whites as color images. It gives me the flexibility to add a filter if I so desire.
Beautiful ~ love the processing and appreciate your sharing! I like the texture in the snow,etc. I wonder if you masked the sky, without the texture, what the impact might be?
