Mini-landscape in Black and White

For several days it has been pretty cold here.  We have a bit of snow on the ground that is just hanging around, so I used it to make this photo:

This is the edited version, see the other photo for exif data

Here is the original photo:

ISO 125 50mm -0.33 f/10 1/500

While I was shooting I was thinking that I was going to do an HDR version, so I was shooting using a bracketed exposure.  I did use a tripod as well. The original photo that you see above is my middle exposure, so I had a lighter and a darker image as well.  I used those three in Photomatix to make the final image.  I also used a fast shutter speed to deal with the wind that was moving the grass a bit.  I set my camera to a low ISO and used “shade” as my white balance setting to get a better white color and detail in the snow.

I had in mind that I wanted to create a black and white photo that was a little bit abstract. When I loaded my bracketed photos into Photomatix, I felt that the black and white artistic setting was closest to what I was after.  I put the HDR version I created back into Aperture for some final editing.  I cropped the image and also sharpened it a bit.

Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments section.

Cheers!