Your Take Today: USA TODAY's top reader photo

Your Take contributor Benjamin Coy just wanted to capture the Veteran's Pier on MarshWalk in Murrells Inlet, S.C., in black and white.

He took several images on his Canon T4i and 18-35 mm IS STM lens, and set out to bracket the shots into one HDR piece.

During the editing process in Adobe Lightroom 5, Coy loved the image so much he chose this shot as his final product.

"The boldness and contrast in the clouds that morning against the structure and lines of the pier supplied perfect definition," he said.

Coy also said he relies on film developing/enlarging techniques by burning in over exposed areas to extract more detail and dodging in darker areas to restore balance. In Lightroom you can accomplish this by turning down the highlights and boosting the shadows, he suggests.

For more of Coy's work, visit his Instagram, Twitter, website and contributor profile.

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