Peeling Bark

[denise ippolito]

Canon 5D
24-105mm
1/80 sec. f/6.3
ISO 320
focal length 105mm
HH

I was hiking and saw this tree w/ peeling bark-it had this soft color and attracted my eye. What I'd like to know is should I selectively sharpen or leave natural? Or Ortonize?

[Mike Moats]

Hey Denise, I would do a little more sharpening in the frilly bark area and boost the contrast to make more seperation in all the shades and details. An interesting subject which could also work as a vertical. BG looks good.

[denise ippolito]

Mike I selectively sharpened and added contrast- I don't usually have a heavy hand w/ this stuff so if it needs more please feel free to let me know-PS Your book and a Lensbaby Composer are on my Christmas list -I hope I get them!!

[Dave Mills]

That looks like a paperbark maple. You picked an interesting subject...

[Ed Vatza]

Hi Denise,

Cool subject. And I like the background. I do think the second image looks better but I also think you could go with still more sharpening and contrast. But let's see what Mike says here.

[denise ippolito]

Ed, I think you're right .I should re-sharpen a little

[Julie Kenward]

Yup, I'd agree...a little more sharpening and a bit more contrast. I just took a few photos of this same kind of tree and I loved the interesting patterns that the curly bark made. You did a very good job on this, Denise.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Denise, I did a little processing on my laptop while watching football. The laptop LCD is not the best for processing images but here's my take on your image. I thought it had to much negative space so I trimmed the side a bit. Could have even done a tad more sharpening. The contrast will help with depth.

[denise ippolito]

Mike , That looks much better-the contrast really did help-If I go w/ this crop I shot this f/10 it should be sharper and I won't need to worry about BG . Thankyou for your help

[Mike Moats]

Hey Denise, I may have gone slightly stronger than it needed but as I said laptop LCD is not the best to process on, but you get the idea as the boost in contrast will add a little more depth, and division in the light and darks gives it a more 3D look.

[denise ippolito]

Thanks again

[Mike Moats]

Hey Denise, now that I see it on my regular screen, whooo I went a little to intense with the laptop so I would back it off from this.

[denise ippolito]

Mike, I do the same thing on my lap-top so I took that into consideration-I will add more contrast when I'm on my PC

[Anita Bower]

A beautiful subject and shot. I like the cropped version.

Re. sharpening: I notice that photographers on this forum like images sharpened a lot.

Questions: Do Denise and Mike remember the settings at which they re-sharpened this image? And, did you sharpen the entire image of only the tree?

Thanks!
Anita Bower

[denise ippolito]

Anita, on my version I selectively sharpened only focal point at 20%