Bristlecone Pines, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

This is a shot of the textures of an ancient bristlecone pine. You can read more about these fantastic trees, the oldest of all living things, elsewhere on my blog. Also check out Day of Reckoning, another shot from the same session as this textured photo.

I converted the RAW photo to black and white in Photoshop using a layer stack of Black & White adjustment layers from bottom to top:

• Bottom layer: default b&w adjustment
• An adjustment layer using the High Contrast Blue filter preset, combined with a left-to-right gradient, applied to the left side, using partial opacity
• A second adjustment layer using the High Contrast Blue filter preset, applied to selected spots using the Brush Tool
• An adjustment layer using the Infrared Preset, applied to a few selected spots

You can learn more about my black and white conversion process in Creative Black & White: Digital Photography Tips & Technques.