This was an image I’d scratched my head with in colour. I just couldn’t do anything with it, and I didn’t think it worked well in monochrome, so even though I liked it and thought it had potential it never really went beyond basic adjustments.

I’ve always thought it an intriguing image, but one that lacks something to make it a little bit special. That said, I’m not sure what I’d do to make a better one if I went back and re-took it – a lower perspective with a wider lens maybe, or possibly a longer shutter speed to blur the water more. That being said, I don’t know what the current state of the site is, it might be exactly the same, or it might all have been washed away, I’ve no idea!

 The starting point, an unprocessed raw image out of the camera

Desaturated file, the starting point for all work

Tonally, there’s quite a lot in it, and the challenge was to get it balanced, without over-emphasising any one particular area. The sky has always been a problem as there’s virtually nothing there (I’d have had to use a grad filter on the lens to have retained any sky detail, and I don’t actually own any). I did try cropping the sky out, but it just didn’t look right, so resorted to just darkening it using curves.