My brain gets a nice tickle when I add a lot of contrast and stark whites and stark blacks to a picture I'm editing. I notice that once I've pulled those sliders to their extremes I find it hard to 'undo' it. It is as if my mind already registered the extremes, and everything softer or more subtle than that is just 'meh'.
So I often end up treating my Lightroom sliders carefully. Once I've gone overboard I might have ruined the picture - unable to undo it. I use my photo editing to optimize a picture and often keep it close to how I've seen and experienced it, not alter a scene too much.
But then, some days... I just let go. I could go even more extreme than this, of course, but I just pulled those sliders to their extreme ends, overdid the vignetting, added some more whites and blacks than I would have done in my normal routine, and voila: I end up with a lovely series of shameless photo edits.
These stark black and whites often work for me if I find shapes and light the most important factors of the photograph.
Like the S-shaped beach, the textures of the rocks.
The layers upon layers of sand and water waves.
After an editing session like this, I often feel thirsty for more.
All photography on steemit.com/@soyrosa is created and edited by me, Rosanne Dubbeld, 2005-2018. Contact me if you want to discuss licensing or collaborations on creative projects :-)