As with a number of the images here this is the result, not of pre-planning, but of disatisfaction with the original photograph. The original was taken near junction 21 of the M62 – on my way home from work – and, while the scene itself was quite dramatic, the picture was rather bland and lacking in contrast. Mind you, at 70mph in the pouring rain, it was rather difficult to concentrate on getting a good shot ;-)

Also, I think that there isn’t too much you can do to subtely manipulate a jpeg image without introducing noticeable artefacts into the final result. As such, it’s much easier to perform gross manipulations in that any changes are then intentional rather that by-products of the process itself – at least that’s my excuse.

So, basically, this image is the result of massively increasing the contrast in the image and I do like the way that it’s ‘lifted’ the road’s surface; i.e. the bouncing rain appears to have become a part of the road. The only other change I made was to use Photoshop’s ‘lens flare’ filter to add a bit more interest to the sky.