The crown jewel of the North South Trail that extends the length of Rhode Island is this section in Arcadia State Management Area. This series of cascades is known as the Stepstone Falls. Appropriately enough, there are a series of granite blocks lining the area that were naturally carved by the last ice sheet to traverse this region about 14,000 years ago. The blocks are quite uniform and do indeed resemble steps.
I decided to stick with the black and white theme that's been building, and hope to complete a series of similar images showing the various falls and cascades in Rhode Island. Converting this to black and white did prove challenging, however, since the falls at the top of the image were in bright sun and the cascades in the foreground were in deep shade. Getting the proper contrast without blowing out the brighter falls was a lengthy process.
Post processing started in Topaz Adjust. I applied a detail medium filter and adjusted the adaptive exposure, contrast, protect highlights, detail strength, and adaptive saturation sliders. I then brought the image into Topaz B&W FX and applied a low contrast filter. From there I adjusted the contrast, boost black, boost white, strength, and adaptive saturation sliders. I also heavily adjusted the color sensitivity sliders to bring out greater contrast in the foreground water. In PSE I applied a levels adjustment and a sepia photo filter.
