Shutter-life|Adaptive photography and more, by Henrik Johansson

Last Sunday I went cross country ice skating with a friend on Lake Vendel, a bit north of my home town of Uppsala in Sweden. It was a clear and cold day. The temperature didn’t rise above -13C (9F) during the whole day. Unfortunately, the ice was covered with snow, enough to make the resistance more than a nuisance. Our speed were hampered, but we still managed to skate the length of the lake and back. At the far side of the lake is the Örbyhus Castle, where the Swedish king Erik XIV was murdered in the 16th century. On our way back we stopped and I made some photos of the reed at the shore. I only brought my compact, a Canon G9, both because of the weight and the consequences of an involuntarily bath. Fortunately, the macro mode on the G9 is pretty good.

For the post processing, I wanted to make the photo to convey a sense of cold. I performed some of the usual actions - I increased saturation and added some clarity and vibrance. To make the photo feel colder, I used split toning to add a blue tint to the shadows. I also added a slightly yellow tone to the high lights, which almost made the spots in direct sun light look pink. Finally, I slightly over exposed the photo and increased the blacks.