"On . . . the bark of trees . . ."

[Dennis Bishop]

The title is part of a quote by American painter, Mark Tobey. "On pavements and the bark of trees I have found whole worlds."





Nikon D3s, ISO 200, f/5.6, 3-exposure HDR at 1 EV intervals, 105 mm macro lens

processing highlights

• The initial processing was done with Topaz Simplify, Alien Skin Snap Art (2 layers of each), and Fractalius (three layers).
• There were also two layers of part of a Joel Olives texture (extracted with Select>Color Range), each with a different blend mode.
• Nik Silver Efex was applied with a reduced opacity and Saturation blend mode. (Normal blend mode gave an entirely different effect.) Instead of using a true black & white, I've been reducing the opacity of the layer to tint it a bit with the underlying color.
• The border is the only part that shows of an underlying layer that was made by stamping all the other layers and blurring the result.

[Hazel Grant]

I'm always fascinated reading your steps. I learn so much. This has so much character in it anyway, just wondering how the original looks. Your quote is spot on.

[Wendy Kates]

Dennis, I really like the abstract image that you have created: the pattern of lines in the bark are enhanced by your processing, as is the three-dimensional nature of the image. Really nice.

[Judy Howle]

Nice processing Dennis. It does make an interesting abstract.

[Dennis Bishop]

. . . This has so much character in it anyway, just wondering how the original looks. . . .

Thanks, Hazel. This is how it looked out of tone mapping of the three bracketed shots. Looking at these colors, again, I wonder if going to pretty much black & white was the right move. I have no idea why I didn't get it better-focused and why I didn't use a smaller aperture for greater depth of field.

[Wendy Kates]

Hi Dennis...I like the b&w (original) post better: I think the black and white processing makes the textures and abstract lines more noticeable, and the slight OOF areas less noticeable. Although the different tones of brown in your repost are also lovely, I think the OP is more compelling and dramatic. --Wendy

[Nancy Bell]

Well created! I love the bark of trees but never tried to work with it. This turned out very well. As always, your blend of steps and layers create such an interesting version of the image. No worries about all those technical details; sometimes you get a more creative take than otherwise.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Dennis,

Greetings. The mix of dark and light wood patterns is interesting. I like the flow of the contours and the three dimensional appearance (if different from the unprocessed shot). I find that I miss the crisp fine detail of the wood pattern especially around the upper center knots. My mental model of what wood looks like resists the Simplfy look (emphasis on my here). Thanks for posting.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Hazel Grant]

Thanks for the original post. Like you, I have often wondered,"Why did I do or not do _____?" But the texture is there and I think going to the BW textured version is the right call. Well done

[Anita Bower]

An interesting abstract pattern in this bark. I love bark, but I find it difficult to take pleasing photos. You succeeded. The swirl on the upper third line is where my eye goes first, the travels around. Converting it to B&W was definitely the way to go. Beautiful textures and full range of tones from light to dark. I agree with Wendy.
I'm interested in the Joel Olives textures you used. I think you applied them before converting to monochrome?
Did you tone map the images using an HDR software program?
What does this mean (extracted with Select>Color Range)?

[Dennis Bishop]

. . . I'm interested in the Joel Olives textures you used. I think you applied them before converting to monochrome?
Did you tone map the images using an HDR software program?
What does this mean

Thanks for your comments and questions, Anita. The Joel Olives texture I used, here, was Catherine from his Artisan collection. It has a rather dark purple around the edges; the inside is a lighter tan with some red. The purple part is all I used, and I did that by pasting the Select>Color Range selection on a new transparent layer. That layer was used twice -- once before the conversion to black & white and once after. The "after" layer is Multiply blend mode at 16% opacity, so it's fairly subtle and, of course, is only near the edges. It's most noticeable at the lower left corner. It's earlier application, before the black & white conversion, made a greater impact.

In general terms, I suppose tone mapping could refer to any process that has the goal of producing photographic output that has detail in both the highlights and shadows. Most of my images start with bracketed exposures, at least some of which will have areas that are way too light and dark. The HDR software goes through some sort of mathematical gyrations to give an image with no blown-out whites or clipped blacks if I set things up right when taking the shots. I don't think it's as simple as choosing the right parts of each exposure, but that's an easy way to think of it.

HDR processing can be adjusted to give garish results or just a good histogram. When I figured that out, I started shooting almost nothing but bracketed exposures and processing for a good histogram in the tone-mapped image. The first program I used was Photomatix. As far as I know, it's still well-regarded. I think it was back when Nik Software was bought by Google and owners of any Nik programs were given the entire collection, that I tried out their HDR Efex. I don't remember why, but I preferred it for what I do and have been using it ever since. Photoshop has had a built-in HDR processor, and I've tried it at several stages of its development. Some people like it, but I still prefer HDR Efex because I can easily get what I want.

[Anita Bower]

Thank you very much for your excellent explanation of how you use tone mapping and these textures. I've never used tone mapping nor done HDR, but want to try. You certainly get great results.