Picture of the Day - County Road

This is one of my favorite black and white images. I took this shot a few years ago in the hills east of Walla Walla, just wandering around looking for good photos. It was in September, as I remember, and autumn foliage had not really started yet.

This is a good image with the strong clouds in the sky and the road leading off into the distance with a slight curve that gives the picture more depth. In some ways, it is the classic composition that photographers look for. Without a doubt, it is a much stronger picture in black and white than color. Often, I seem to have an interesting battle with myself as to whether an image is better in color or B&W.

The image was actually shot using a 35 mm camera on color slide film. I scanned the image into Photoshop and proceeded to change it into a black and while image. Then, I used two different color filters (digital) to process the image, one color for the sky and another for the ground, each in a separate process.

Now, in the old days, using black and white film, I would have used a red or orange filter on the lens to give me a richer sky. Different color filters affect the shades of gray in black and white film. But a red filter might not have helped the ground. Using two separate color filters in the computer gave me the gray tones I wanted.

I think Ansel Adams would have liked this image.