Frost Patterns

Today felt like the first real day of winter we have had this year, starting with a bright frosty morning and the cars covered in hoar frost. When I was new to Blip last winter I very much enjoyed trying to photograph the wind patterns in the frost. However, I was able to take time using a tripod and macro set up which enabled me to concentrate on the individual frost crystals.

This morning it was a matter of taking grab shots with my compact and seeing what I could do with them in the computer. Normally the histogram is quite confined to the central area as the camera struggles to create a mid-grey. It is therefore quite easy in Lightroom to whack up the exposure and darken the blacks to boost the contrast overall and reveal the patterns in greater detail. Even the clarify slider will add extra mid-tone contrast. As for colours you can use the temperature slider to add or remove blue. As the frosted car was a grey/blue colour I was basically able to decide how saturated I wanted my image as certainly blue is the colour that best suits frost patterns.

Whilst my efforts are not that noteworthy it has certainly inspired me to do more of this sort of photography if this type of winter weather persists.