About the Image(s)

Camera settings: 1/320sec, f/7.1, ISO100, 183.00mm

This month's image is one I shot standing on our balcony and looking out over the lake to the hills on the other side. It was a beautiful, misty morning after a night of rain. I would normally use a slower shutter speed for moody clouds, however I didn't want to blow out the sky, and didn't have time to go and get my polarising filter. Time, and sunrises, don't stand still!

I processed this image in two different ways, and I would appreciate your feedback. With the black and white image, I felt I needed to remove the power lines, as they were simply a distraction. I prefer the finished image in black and white in terms of art. However, it doesn't show the sunrise. It also doesn't have the power lines which are a feature of this area - the lake flows to a hydro dam and we generate electricity for the national grid.

I went back to the RAW image and re-processed in a minimal way. I increased contrast in the area of the power lines. If they were to stay, it had to be clear what they were, and they needed to sit clearly in the image. I slightly increased the warmth in the clouds above the hills, and used the Camera Raw filter, taking the de-haze slider to the left to ensure the clouds below the hills stayed soft, and didn't take on the added contrast. The only other thing I did was to use two curves layers to selectively apply a subtle dodge and burn.