Photo of trees and lake

Lake and Trees #4

The story behind this image

I photographed these trees by the side of Thirlemere in the Lake District one sunny afternoon in late Autumn, just as the season's colours were reaching their peak.

So why is this particular image devoid of colour?

Well, as I always do, I took this photo in the RAW file format, so I had the option of keeping the original colour image, or converting to black and white later on in the digital darkroom.

I love this flexibility. Much better than the old days of film when you had to decide on this sort of thing in the field.

Anyhow, for this photo, it wasn't the colours that attracted me but the stark contrast between the sunlit tree trunks and the deep blue sky.

When I tried a monochrome conversion in PhotoShop, emphasising the red channel to darken the blue sky, the image became much more dynamic and interesting than the original colour version, with the trees really 'popping' against the darkened background.

Image data

Filename - lake tree 04.jpg

Camera - Nikon D3100

Lens - 18-55mm zoom @18mm

Exposure - 1/50sec @ f11, ISO100

Location - Thirlemere, Lake District

This image - 400x800px JPEG

Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2

Comments - Handheld exposure with lens stabilisation.