A Try at Black & White

I wanted to give a shot at a black and white image. I got some images a couple of years ago of a storm heading my way across Lake Lewisville and figured that might make a good candidate for a B&W. The image was taken with my Canon 450D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens, 1/5s, f/25, ISO400.

What I really wanted was to emphasize those storm clouds. First I made a few adjustments in Lightroom and brought it in to Photoshop. In Photoshop I used Nik Dfine 2.0 to eliminate some noise. Next I used Nik Viveza 2 get the image closer to what I wanted it to look like in color. Then I used Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 to get it into a Black and White image. Once out of there, all the dust spots really showed up. I cleaned those up and pulled it into Nik Sharpener Pro 3.0 optimized for display.

Storm in B&W

I’m not sure it’s exactly what I’m looking for. With practice I’m sure I’ll get much better.