I wanted to give a shot at a black and white image. I got some images a couple of years ago of a storm heading my way across Lake Lewisville and figured that might make a good candidate for a B&W. The image was taken with my Canon 450D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens, 1/5s, f/25, ISO400.

What I really wanted was to emphasize those storm clouds. First I made a few adjustments in Lightroom and brought it in to Photoshop. In Photoshop I used Nik Dfine 2.0 to eliminate some noise. Next I used Nik Viveza 2 get the image closer to what I wanted it to look like in color. Then I used Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 to get it into a Black and White image. Once out of there, all the dust spots really showed up. I cleaned those up and pulled it into Nik Sharpener Pro 3.0 optimized for display.

I’m not sure it’s exactly what I’m looking for. With practice I’m sure I’ll get much better.