Steven Bourelle Digital Arts

I find it very interesting that I can look at one of my images and never see it any other way than how it currently is, but then one day I’ll look at it and see something totally different.

Last night I was glancing through some  older photos when this shot of the Minarets, in California’s Sierra Nevada, caught my attention. Now, I’ve had this image for 5 years and I’ve never imagined it as anything other than a color image, but when I looked at  it last night, I immediately saw it as a black and white and knew exactly how I wanted it to look.

It’s moments of inspiration like this, that keep my love of photography so strong. With the modern digital dark room anything is possible, and it’s a wonderful feeling to know that at any time one of my older images can be reborn.

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While looking for November’s Photo of the Month for my other site, SierraVisions.com, I came upon this image in my files. Not only did I make it the photo of the month, I also turned it into my newest black and white image.

When I shot this photo last November, I remember liking the way the main elements in the image contrasted. To me, the chaotic nature of the tree branches working with the simplicity of the tree trunks and snow covered ground create a very interesting scene. That contrast didn’t show up to well in the color version, but in the black and white it’s very powerful.

When I began working on the black and white image I had a hard time getting the scene to look like I wanted it. The tree trunks kept going black on me and the branches had way to much contrast. I also had problems with the snow on the ground wanting to blow out and go pure white. I was getting  pretty frustrated and  considered giving up on the image. That’s when I had an idea that I had to try. I thought maybe  if I did an HDR of the color image and then turn that into black and white I could keep some detail in the tree trunks and the snow. It worked nicely. Not only did the HDR keep the snow from blowing out, it also preserved the shadows on the ground that are such an important part of the image.

I then proceeded to process the image the way I do all of my black and white images. In Photoshop, I use a combination of Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro and adjustment layers to get the look I want, (Someday I’ll have to do a tutorial on my B&W technique.)

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This image was shot at Hyde’s Mill in South-west Wisconsin. What a cool little place.

We drove 150 miles, one way, just to see this beautiful little mill. It was worth every mile. When we got there it was very cloudy, perfect conditions for shooting the mill. The sun came out a little later and the scene became way to contrasty. Along with the mill there is an old blacksmith building, a bunch of grinding stones and three old rusty turbines.

In processing this image I did something I’ve never done before. I used Lightroom’s develop presets. Normally when I work on a black and white, or in this case sepia image, I do all the work in Photoshop and use a combination of Nik Software’s Silver Efexs Pro and adjustment layers. I wanted to do a black and white image of this scene and for some reason I started clicking on the presets. When I clicked on the sepia one I liked what I saw, then I clicked on a couple more and things really got interesting. I played around with the contrast, added a vignette and then exported the image.

Then I opened it up in Photoshop and continued to play around with it. I used Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro to add a little more vignette and to reposition it a little. I also did some burn work here and there and did some more contrast work with adjustment layers.

Before we left on this trip, I had a vision in my mind of the image I wanted from the mill. This image is pretty close to what I saw in my mind. It’s almost as if my subconscious knew what I wanted and clicked on the right Lightroom presets to give it to me.

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Here’s a new black and white image from our trip to Badlands National Park in South Dakota last spring. I’ve been trying to find the name of this formation, but I can’t find it online. If anyone happens to know it’s name, please leave a comment for me. Thanks.

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