Editing Color to B&W Topaz Adjust

Here is the original.
Pretty scene but the colors are off, the world is tilted and overall I'm not very impressed.
I thought that before trashing it I might see what I could do if I turned it to black and white.

I tried to de-saturate and work with that, but it just didn't seem to be working for me.
Next I decided to try Topaz Adjust.
I flipped through the presets and decided to hit 'Sketch Dark Charcoal'. My first impression was that is was way too dark.

I wasn't trying to make these scene more colorful or 'pop' ... I just wanted it truer to what my mind's eye saw at the time I stood there shivering and taking the photo.

Okay this was much better. But now I could obviously see that the photo was tilted.
This happens more often than you think. You are focusing so hard on the subject that you don't even realize that your photo is slightly canted.

So the last thing I do is straighten the photo... which was kindly pointed out to me by some fellow photographers on a Photography Forum called Press The Shutter.


My end result is very satisfying. I'll probably use it in a book publication that I am working on.

So I went from a so-so photo that had decent composition, to a very nice black and white.
One less photo in the 'trash bin'.