For today's photo I decided to swing my Roger Williams Park to see if there was anything interesting going on. The temperature was in the low 40s, so after the miserable weather last week and the forecast for rain over the next couple of days, I was sure there would be people out and about. I wasn't disappointed. This small pond is very close to the park's Elmwood Avenue entrance and there were several groups of people fishing. These two teens were in the best position for a photo with an interesting background, so I asked if they'd mind a few photos. They had no objections and went about with their fishing, completely ignoring the camera. They weren't having much luck with the fish, but seemed to be enjoying the comfortable day at the pond anyway.
I tried processing this for black and white, but not surprisingly, it didn't work at all. There's nothing in this scene that would generate a pure white, and in greyscale the background trees became too distracting. Color was really the only option.
Post processing started with a brilliant warm filter in Topaz Adjust. I then adjusted adaptive exposure, regions, details, protect highlights, protect shadows, and adaptive saturation. In PSE I added a levels adjustment followed by a brightness and contrast adjustment. I also added a deep blue photo filter just to the sky and the sky reflections in the water, just to improve the contrast there a bit.
@naturalbeauty It's hard to believe it was snowing non-stop for two days last week! I was thinking of that snow when I saw the jacket you were wearing in your photo, today.
@naturalbeauty Do you normally get much snow in your area? I know the guys we work with from Scotland have been saying they're getting more than usual. I never pictured the UK as getting a lot of snow, though.
@naturalbeauty Interesting shift in weather patterns, eh? We had several folks in from the UK this week. (They're all from Edinburgh.) Naturally, we accused them of bringing the snowstorm with them. LOL
So peaceful and tranquil. Yes it would not work in black and white. Shame they didn't catch anything. I still can't find the right words to approach a stranger and ask if I can take their pic.
