It was a lovely bright sunny day down at Hannafore near Looe. In the distance clouds starting to appear on the horizon. The sun was quite high in the sky and was producing light which glistened off the water surface. I saw a solitary red sail boat out to sea, I loved the contrast of colours with the light blue sky and sea, almost pastel in nature and the bright red sail. I took a few photographs ensuring the boat was positioned on the lower right hand third, the light clouds gave balance to the top of the frame which helped lift this area with a subtle detail.
Once I got back home I processed all my photographs using Lightroom 5.7. I produced the colour photograph which is pretty much how I envisioned the scene. I wanted a light, almost high key image with soft contrast to emphasize the delicate colour and tones.
I am not a prolific colour photographer and monochrome images are generally more my thing. With this in mind I decided to try a monochrome version. I found that when I lowered the exposure and boosted the shadow and highlights I created a strong contrast in the image which brought out the bright highlights on the water and the white clouds. The shadow adjustment in turn toned down the bank of cloud moving in, which on closer inspection was a veil of rain from a storm cloud. The stronger, darker tones gave the photograph a much more menacing stormy look.
