Cedar In Swamp Oil

[Mike Moats]

Found a nice spot of swamp oil in a cedar swamp.

Fuji S5, Sigma 180, Tripod, Natural Light, F32

[Gus Cobos]

Great composition Mike,
I like the multi colored textures and the placement of the leaf in the frame. The combination of different color hues makes it for me...congrats...well done...:cool:

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Mike, lovely colors and great texture on the leaf! I couldn't resist playing with your image a little. I just had to make a vertical of it, the position of the leaf and the cracks in the "oil" just asked for it. Furthermore, I sharpened it considerably to enhance the textures using adaptive unsharp in Corel Photopaint. Last, I boosted the contrast and decreased brightness to get more color effects out of the oil. I just keep wishing the leaf wasn't submerged.....
Hope you like my results!
- Jerry -

[Chris Starbuck]

You have a great eye for these, Mike. I like the soft pastel complementary colors (purple/orange) in your original. I like Jerry's vertical rotation, too, but I think I would then flip it horizontally so the leaf is angled up from left to right (as in your orig) - creates a subtly different emotional feel IMO. Not sure about Jerry's other adjustments - they look good to me (I'm generally a vivid-color addict), but they do change the feel of the image. Depends on what you want to communicate.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Jerry, the sharpening and contrast helped the image pop. I like the vertical comp as well as the horizontal.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Hi, IMO the vertical comp has more strenght, more impact, don't know why but I like it better, still as horizontal or vertical I love it anyway, th color, the natural moment, all is great! Congratulations!