Petrified Wood Details

[LinzRiverBalmer]

Thought this might be a fun one for this weeks theme.

This was shot a few years ago with my older camera, Canon S5 IS.

Right after I moved into my Grandparents house we got rid of the grass in the backyard and put in a mountain for desert plants.

Steps go up to a bench, and the sideway for the step supports are large pieces of petrified wood.

There are natural crevices and for fun I had put some sedum in a crevice, and it grew, still is growing to this day.

This is PP of Detail Extractor (trial of NIK) and dark contrasts.

I really intensified every contrast I could to show all the elements of this wood, and then tried to bring up the white in the flowers.

The size is deceiving I shot this in macro, this piece of would all together is about 3 feet tall and 2 wide and weighs about 500 pounds.

I will get to commenting on the other theme posts after some shut eye.

[Christopher Miller]

Very nice textures and composition, Linz. You did a good job bringing out all the detail. I might tone down a few of the brightest spots in the wood just a little.

[Anita Bower]

Lovely work. I like all the details, the composition, and especially the flowering sedum. I see what Christopher means about toning down the bright spots. Perhaps there is too much contrast; I notice that the dark areas seem to lack detail. Nicely done.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Linz, I like the oblique lines of the crevasses, the fissures in the wood and the sedum. Christopher makes a good observation about toning down the brights a bit.

[Diane Miller]

Spunky little plant! My personal preference runs more to lower contrast, but achieving it without things going flat can be tricky and depends on soft light to start with.

You have a sort of intermediate treatment here -- you've gone for a high contrast look, which could suit the petrified wood, but as pointed out, the lights and darks present perceptual problems in what is still basically a realistic image. You might consider pushing it even farther, so it's making a much more obvious artistic statement. In that case, the contrast becomes the main point, and the subject is secondary. Think how a painter might handle things.

How well it might work on this image I can't say, but it's something to play with and think about.

[gary ellwein]

I like the contrast between the coarse texture of the wood and the soft plants. The diagonal lines work. I agree with the others about toning things down.

[LinzRiverBalmer]

thank you all...... appreciate the compliments and input..... I hope the thank you button gets fixed with the site.

I agree with all of you this image still needs some work, my normal version of it is very natural, focusing more on sedum, its peaceful and soft.

For the theme I cranked up the detail and contrast, playing in topaz adjust 5.

I do agree with Diane that for the out of the box backyard theme, it needs to be pushed even further towards artistic. Won't get to it now as I'm still learning my programs, computer and have a very busy week.

Probably will post one more for this theme, can't help it, my backyard gets most of my attention since I can't go out much.