desert mountains

[Wendy Kates]

Okay, I couldn't resist trying out the Distort>Polar Coordinate technique. I chose an image that I had posted back in April, of the mountains in the Negev Desert in Israel. I cropped out the blue sky, because I just wanted to emphasize the striations of the rocks in the mountains. The technique produced a background color that didn't contrast at all with the rest of the image. (It was orange / rusty.) So I picked up the brown color in the image and turned it into the background with the magic wand tool. The only problem was that the magic wand didn't work perfectly, so I had to clone back the left side of the circle at about 270 degrees. Not perfect, but I think it's acceptable.

This stuff is addictive! It's midnight and I have to go to sleep! Tomorrow I am having laser surgery on one of my eyes for glaucoma, so hopefully the blurriness (a temporary side effect, apparently) will go away fast and I'll be able to resume this addictive behavior by Wednesday or Thursday!

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Wendy, hope your eyes are better soon. Polar Coordinates are definitely addictive! I like the organic look and colors of this one. I wanted to see another version with more tonal contrast just to see what it would look like - attached. With USM at Amount 15, Radius 30, Threshold 0. It reminds me of a cross-section of a tree or agate.

[Nancy Bell]

With those colors I immediately thought of your desert image from Israel. I really like flow of the internal lines and the variations of oranges. Cheryl has a nice version and it does look like agate! Good luck with the laser surgery. And I totally agree on the addictiveness of this technique! Good therapy for whatever ails you.

[Wendy Kates]

Thanks, Cheryl and Nancy. I really like your version, Cheryl...it makes the image pop more, and I agree that it resembles agate Laser surgery went fine...thanks...however I think I'll hold off on additional image processing until tomorrow!

[Diane Miller]

Stunning! Glad the surgery went well. Take it easy for a few days.

[Arthur Morris]

Interesting for sure and the repost is an improvement so well done by all.