Memorial Bridge Over the Frozen Potomac, January 2009

I attended the Presidential Inauguration in Washington DC on January 15, 2009. The cold temperatures sliced through my many layers of clothing and chilled me to the core. Even so, it was a great day, and provided me the opportunity to take lots of photos. I decided to walk home after the ceremony, and on the way I found several photo-worthy sights. Below is a photo of Memorial Bridge over the frozen Potomac River. Most of the river was solid ice, but there were a few spots where the current was stronger that had broken into dangerous-looking jagged rectangles floating on the surface of the frigid water.

The scene was dramatic enough by itself, but I wanted to create a black and white version and enhance it, to take advantage of the bold composition and strong angular shapes. I've posted the original photo for the sake of comparison, along with the final black and white version.

Before:

(The Original Photo)

After:

The photo after desaturating it (turning it black and white) and putting it through many layers of selectively-applied filters and enhancements, first in Apple's Aperture software, then in Adobe's Photoshop software:

This photo is available to purchase as a print, poster, canvas print, or greeting card.
Purchase through ImageKind.com or RedBubble.com.

I split the image up in to sections, using Photoshop layers, and applied different effects to each section. There is a layer for the clouds in the upper left corner. A layer for the vertical face of the bridge, a separate layer for each of the arches in the bridge, a layer for the buildings in the background, and several other minor layers for smaller items that I wanted to enhance differently than the objects around them.

One of the more obvious enhancements is the contrast of the clouds in the background. The information was there in the original photo, but it required several iterations of filters, including increasing the exposure while simultaneously increasing the black point. I could have achieved a similar effect using the contrast filter, but that would have washed out the subtle gradations too much.

I applied similar effects to the bridge and to the sheets of ice in the river.

One thing I wanted to make sure I achieved was clarity of the details in the darker areas, such as the underside of the arches on the bridge. I had to be careful to not deepen the darks too much or lose them as other filters were applied. I think the end result does a pretty good job of achieving the effect I was hoping for.