South Lake Stream

It was a very cold morning as I slid down the bank to set up for this

photograph. It had been snowing but it quickly melted and made

everything wet and slippery. I was very cold now because I was now

wet from my fall. But the show must go on and I was determined to get

something for my inconvenience. I have always loved the Aspens trees

when their leaves turn yellow and that was what drew me to this image;

of course the stream helps a lot too. I put a medium yellow filter on

my lens to further brighten the yellow leaves. it was a normal

development on T-Max film. The first thing that I do in Photoshop is

to open a Levels adjustment layer and drags the black & white sliders

to where the image data starts. This will correct for any lack of

proper contrast in my image. This is a very important step; just try

it while looking at your image. Next I run an overall curves

adjustment layer for the entire image. Then look at your image a see

if any area needs additional tweaking and edit each of those areas.

Now here's the biggest tip I can give you. Rather than selecting the

area and then running an adjustment to that selection, just add the

adjustment layer and make the adjustment to the whole image but just

keep you eye on the area that you are correcting. When it's to your

satisfaction close the dialog box.Your adjustment was made to the

whole image, so now we add a mask( click box with a hole in it at the

bottom of the layers palette While holding down the Alt key). Holding

down the Alt key while clicking the mask icon will fill the mask with

black. If your mask is not filled with black, hold down the Ctrl key

and tap the "I" key. Select a soft brush to the size you need and

change your foreground color to white and finally change the flow to

about 20%.Everywhere you paint now will remove the black allowing your

changes to show through. Pretty cool!that was one of the best things I

ever learned. And if you make a mistake just paint black over it again

and it's gone. You can further control your adjustments by using the

opacity slider to fine tune it even further. I used a dodging burning

layer to lighten some areas (Aspen leaves) and darken others(trees

next to the Aspens). Darkening the trees next to the Aspens makes the

leaves seem even brighter. Lastly I added an Ektalure Cream tone. Your

comments are always appreciated.

A very busy image packed full of texture and sound. Very nice BW work

Lovely image!

Very good range of tones, lines, and textures. I just learned that Adjustment Layer technique too and it is indeed very helpful; it allows you to dodge and burn by using the curves instead of the pixel damaging dodge and burn tools.

 

Kirk

Beautiful work, Leo. I particularly like the balance of the composition, from bottom to top. The dark, wet rocks with the leaves in the FG really add some punch. Perfect exposure too. Your black and white images are some of the finest I've seen; and I've thoroughly enjoyed carefully looking at each of them. Thanks for sharing these, Leo. A 7/6 anonymously. Cheers! Chris

Another wonderful b&w shot - excellent use of slow shutter speed.

A great shot Leo. Your whole portfolio is quite awesome.