Today’s choice was a struggle. It’s not because I didn’t like the shot the best, it was more because I have posted water lilies on two other occasions. In each case I like the shots for different reasons. Today’s image was chosen more for the water and the lily pads than the flowers. The past few days have included learning some different techniques for processing my images. Photoshop offers a lot of ways to make a photo black & white but a lot of them leave something to be desired. This gradient map method has several steps but really gives me a lot of control of the tones. For those of you that have applied a gradient map layer and chosen the black & white layer, this method is a bit more in depth than that.

Thanks so much for all of the comments and support from the group. As we head into May, I remember when I first discovered this group through a tip from Vandana. This community has been a huge help in so many ways for my photography. I enjoy your daily galleries so much and look forward to them every day. You are a talented and creative group and I am happy that I can participate in the daily photos. It blows me away that you guys take the time to look at my images and will make the effort to leave a comment. I appreciate it more than I can say.

Today’s choice was a struggle. It’s not because I didn’t like the shot the best, it was more because I have posted water lilies on two other occasions. In each case I like the shots for different reasons. Today’s image was chosen more for the water and the lily pads than the flowers. The past few days have included learning some different techniques for processing my images. Photoshop offers a lot of ways to make a photo black & white but a lot of them leave something to be desired. This gradient map method has several steps but really gives me a lot of control of the tones. For those of you that have applied a gradient map layer and chosen the black & white layer, this method is a bit more in depth than that.

Thanks so much for all of the comments and support from the group. As we head into May, I remember when I first discovered this group through a tip from Vandana. This community has been a huge help in so many ways for my photography. I enjoy your daily galleries so much and look forward to them every day. You are a talented and creative group and I am happy that I can participate in the daily photos. It blows me away that you guys take the time to look at my images and will make the effort to leave a comment. I appreciate it more than I can say.