A Snowy backyard somewhere on the Plateau Mont-Royal, Montreal, Canada

Since I got to Montreal in 1997, I’ve always been fascinated by those backyard alleys, and specifically those who display a lot of symmetry. The brickworks of many old buildings make for a great interest too.

This specific photo was taken on Christmas Eve 2009 on a fairly overcast weather. I used a Nikon D300 and a Sigma 10-20mm all zoomed out at 10mm to make sure I captured the whole scene. I used a tripod to be able to stay at low ISO. The exposure lasted 2.5 seconds at F/10.0 and ISO 200.

Retouching involved mainly curves and levels adjustments in order to increase contrast on the whole image as well as locally.

• Photo after retouching

• Photo before retouching

• Video showing the adjustments done on each adjustment layer in Photoshop.

Enjoy!

Don’t forget to check my portfolio and my stock photos at http://www.davidgiralphoto.com