The Weekly Photo – July 4, 2011

The image below was taken on the Spring Photo Tour in the Canadian Rockies – this is of Abraham Lake from Windy point with a rain storm over Kiska Peak. I used a Canon 24mm TS-E lens tilted to give max apparent DOF. Lately I have been processing my colour images with the B+W conversion program Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. First I process the RAW image the way I want it to look in Camera RAW using Photoshop CS-5 (see original image in this post). Then I convert the image to a pleasing B+W using Silver Efex watching carefully to get the tones in the image exactly the way I want them. I layer the original processed colour image over the converted Silver Efex B+W image in Photoshop and then change the blending mode of the colour layer to “Color”. The result is an image with the contrast of the processed B+W but with the colours of the original file. Remember you can get 15% off of Silver Efex using my name for the discount code at checkout  – darwin (not darren!). In a future post I will have a step-by-step ‘recipe’ of how to make funky colour images using Silver Efex Pro 2. Of course, some people will prefer the original, some will like the conversion – but knowing how to use the tools given to you, you’ll be able to produce images that please your eye (and in the end that is all that matters).

©Darwin Wiggett - Silver Efex Pro 2 conversion

©Darwin Wiggett - original colour image