Balanced Rock

This image from Peggy's Cove Nova Scotia, originally made in color, worked fine until I got into nik's Silver Efex Pro. As I was learning the software, going through pre-existing images, it became clear that certain types of images work better than others. In the series, the sky was soft and pastel in color, consequently lacked visual punch. The light was not as contrasty as I had hoped, so the rock also had a flat look. I took this into Silver Efex Pro and, working off of the Antique Plate preset, tried to give the image more depth, but applying the "Structure" adjustment to the boulder and by allowing the highlights to blow out around it to increase separation.