Winter Photography: “Snow on leaf” in black and white
To prove that we actually get some snow here in south west Tennessee, I took this photograph of some snow that fell and landed gracefully on this dead leaf. I was drawn to this image because of the contrast between the fresh, delicate snow and the old, dried-up leaf. I also like how the snow added depth, contrast and shape to this textured leaf.
I literally took this photo a couple steps outside of my front door which didn’t do to much to help with the cabin fever but I really like how it turned out. I took a few more photographs of the snow and ice around the house, but I think this is the most successful image because, after a little tweaking in Lightroom, it matches exactly what I saw in my mind when I took the picture.
Here’s what I did in Lightroom to make the final image you see here:
- Slightly increased the black levels
- Boosted the contrast
- Adjusted the tonal curve to brighten the snow
- Sharpened the image to bring out some the detail in the snow.
I don’t know what I’d do without Lightroom…I’m a believer. Finally, I uploaded the image to Picnik to create the borders and drop shadow.
I sometimes wish we got a little more snow than we normally do; Snow makes for some great get-em-while-you-can photo opportunities since this snow was gone the next day. I guess I’ll have to wait and see if we get any more snow this year.
