Here's a B/W-let me know which you like better and any fixes please:) #1517464

Didn't really notice the tag until mentioned but did notice that my eye was constantly pulled out of the image by the chain. #10595417

My problem? Too much clutter which weakens the strong lines of the stairs. The stairs aren't well enough separated (in tone or color) from the trees on the inside of the curve both along the line of the bottom bannister and at the top where the stairs turn. This is true in both the color and the B&W versions.

I did try to see if I could get some separation. I pulled a screen shot of your color version into Photoshop and used the B&W layer to convert it. One of the very flexible tools for B&W conversions in the ACR, Photoshop, and even NIK SilverEfex Pro software is that you can apply color filters to change tonal relationships. (I'm sure that is true in the other 3rd party tools as well. Where it is much less flexible is in Elements.) I had hoped that I was seeing enough yellow in the stairs (that wasn't present in the trees) that I could induce some tonal separation between the railings and the trees in a back and white conversion. That didn't work.

The couple of things that did work (in the B&w conversion) was to a) remove most of the blues (cyan and blue sliders in CS4) until you start to lose detail -- this whitened the show and increased contrast with the stairs, and b) cropped of the bottom to the first stair, a 5:6 ratio -- this did add a lot of graphical strength to the lower portion of the stairs.

something I didn't try was a gradient applied diagonally from the top right to the bottom left perpendicularly to the lower bannister. By darkening the upper right corner, you might add some depth to the image and incraese the sense of movement up the stairs. #10595425

I'm really enjoying Stephen's in-depth analysis of these images. Some great ideas and pointers. #10596169

I do see your point about the trees not having enough separation in color/tone with the stairs.

And Debbie, is this in Rocky River-west of Cleveland in the Metroparks. This is where I go running every Sunday. Some days you see people walking the stairs for exercise-up, down, up, down, ect. I am surprised there were no water bottles at the bottom. Although it was a VERY cold and icy day-must have been slick.

I am more than happy to do more work on this-I am trying to not lose momentum on this one:) #10596713

But I have a small suggestion that may surprise you. To add some detail (it's a bit soft) and to also add more contrast between the wood of the fence and the white of the snow. Give this a try.

Duplicate the layer, apply a 100% overlay blend and then with the top layer selected apply the high pass filter with a large setting of 7.5 to 8.0. Depending on the range the high pass settings, it does more than just tweak the sharpness.

This is a difficult image and the thing that would help it most is difficult. That would be to clone out all the brush and leave only the trees and the stair. #10596830

I'll be interested to see what Dale's extreme High pass filter setting does for you. #10596915

I recropped as suggested.

Thanks again for looking at this! #10597758

#10599086

Here's my question for you: Had Elaine removed the sign and the chain before posting the original image, would you have questioned her as to what might have been removed? I'd dare say you wouldn't have. It is likely that you would have spun us a tale of a young lad eagerly scampering up the stairs to catch up with the pretty young lass in his attempt to steal a kiss before her father catches up with them.

That, my friend, is my thoughts on the subject. #10599205

Don't forget to "spring forward" on saturday night. #10599871