I decided to go with a bit of a nautical theme today, and this one really fit the bill. I also wanted to really take the background out of play, so went with an f/2.8 aperture. The black and white conversion was also designed to eliminate any background confusion. I also opted for a high contrast look to emphasize the foreground wood textures and to further hide the background. The reason for all the background hiding is that, all appearances aside, this is not really a boat. It's a sandbox in a playground!
Post processing started with a classic filter in Topaz b&w FX. I adjusted the color sensitivity sliders and then adjusted adaptive exposure, contrast, boost black, and boost white. A levels adjustment and a sepia photo filter were added in PSE.
