Knots and Nails

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...aResizeWeb.jpg

This is one of a series of shots I took of the side of our barn early one morning. The textured wood naturally made a perfect subject for monochrome. Is it all right that the boards are angled slightly or would you prefer to see them straight? Any C&C are welcome!

Olympus SP-550 UZ
f4.5 @ 1/320, ISO 100, -0.7 EV
Program mode, pattern metering, sunny WB
Processed in PS CS2; cropped, curves adjustment,and shadow/highlight
Converted to monochrome using channel mixer, gradient map, curves, and hue/saturation for sepia tone

Christopher, This has a very natural feel to it. I like that the boards aren't straight-it gives them some perspective. The sepia tone is nice. The strapping (I'm guessing that's what it is) is placed well in the frame.Nicely done!

Christopher, I think you did a great job at "seeing" this image. I don't mind the lines of the boards going a bit at an angle - it kind of adds a little more interest, actually. I do think for a more natural look you might pull back the saturation just a bit and move to more of a brown tint - it almost has a bit of a red undertone here.

Thanks Denise and Julie for commenting, I appreciate it.

Julie, I like your repost. Could you tell me what tools you used?

Thanks again!

Christopher, now that I'm looking at your image with the sun down I think I prefer your post! Mine seems to be a bit on the yellow side so maybe somewhere between the two would be best.

All I did was open your image in CS4 and click on the black and white conversion layer in order to take the image back to "neutral." There is a box on that layer that you can check to add a tint so I checked it and played around with the pop up color picker until I found something a little more brown (or so I thought in the light of day!) The only other thing I did (if I remember this right) was to bring the midtones up just a touch using a levels adjustment. Pretty simple, actually.

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...Resize2Web.jpg

Thanks Julie! In this repost I've adjusted the hue, reduced the saturation a tad, and applied a slight curves adjustment. How does this look?

Christopher-nice repost!!

Yep! Good job. Don't you think it looks more realistic now? Nicely done, Chris.

Yes, it does look more realistic. Thanks for the advice and comments!

Hey Chris,
Really like the comp and the way you brought out the texture of the wood in the re-post. I just lightened the old saw blade???....using a screen blend layer....to bring out the details in it a hair more. You can adjust the opacity to taste.....but this is just to give you another idea. Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks Roman for the suggestion! I think it does make it look a little better.

BTW it's not an old saw blade, it's one of a number of old metal strips nailed along the sides of the barn. What their purpose is I don't know. What look like the teeth of a saw are actually shadows on the wood.

Hi Christopher,
I like the composition and image...I too like the texture in the wood...the rusty blade adds a nice touch to it...Roman's repost puts it over the top...congrats...:cool: