Soil Pulverizer

[Dennis Bishop]

If this were a car, it'd be a classic. However, it's a rusty old piece of McCormick - Deering farm equipment (from the 1930s???). It was one of my finds at Van Hoosen Farm. To give you a sense of scale, it's about nine feet long, and it would've been hauled through the field behind a tractor.

nine exposure HDR at 1 EV intervals, Nikon D3s, ISO 200, f/32 105mm macro lens

processing

• Photomatix tone mapping for good histogram
• Adobe Camera Raw -- Recovery, Clarity, color saturation and luminance tweaking in HSL
• Topaz Simplify -- preset based on BuzSim but with less saturation
• two textures, a Joel Olives and a Flypaper Textures one, both at Darker Color blend mode
• duplicate of the Topaz Simplify layer at low opacity
• two Fractalius layers (different b&w presets based on Sketch), Multiply blend mode
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- b&w Stylize Line Art preset, Multiply blend mode
• gradient vignette in a dark purple from the image

[Dennis Bishop]

This is the unretouched TIFF from Photomatix.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Dennis, my hat's off to you..............you take something very ordinary and frame and craft it into something remarkable............love the diagonal repeating curves. Nice textures and lighting....................well designed image!

[laurie golden]

You have turned a very unattractive piece of rust into a very colorful and nicely textured work of art. Great job and thanks for the lesson in combining multiple filters.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Dennis, a wonderful reconstruction I took a similar HDR image at Dudley Farm Tractor show and it looked pretty plain. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I think I'll revisit mine and see if I can improve it.

[Dennis Bishop]

. . . I took a similar HDR image at Dudley Farm Tractor show and it looked pretty plain. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I think I'll revisit mine and see if I can improve it.

The Flypaper Texture was part of a set I purchased and use reasonably often. The Joel Olives texture was Explorer (Cool), and it's in one of three sets he provides at no cost. (I've been pleased with the textures I've used in those sets and will likely purchase at least one of the sets he sells.) I used the cool version of Explorer because it has a large region of a medium blue that I thought would contrast nicely with all the warmth already in the image.

[John Storjohann]

Take a bow, Dennis...I think this is one of my favorite images of yours, particularly given the stark subject matter - you've managed to transform the original into something that plays strongly off of the strong patterns and lines and simplifies beautifully the mottle texture of the rust. Well done!

[Anita Bower]

Thanks for posting both images. Your vision and excellent processing created a strong graphic image.

[denise ippolito]

Dennis, I love the processed version. The composition with the diagonal line is great!! I think the subtle use of Fractalius makes this special.

[Julie Kenward]

That is one great abstract, Dennis! I could even see it with more texture and a bit harsher contrast for a whole other look/feel. Wonderfully creative!