Successful Failure

Gallery: LandscapePosted December 12, 20177,986 views9 comments

First, thanks so much for your comments on my previous image. I personally really like it - yet it's so ordinary. thanks for your comments and suggestions.

This image, and the next two, were captured in the same general area as the last four; previous images were closer to the river along the overflow sand bars. But soon we headed back towards the car and made our way through a thicket of fallen trees, burned trees from previous years of controlled burns; many charred trees... for which Harley and I couldn't pass up. Never met a hollowed out old burnt tree that I didn't like.

But I should probably explain the title. We had this tree surrounded, poor tree. It was hollowed out and the shell stretched around om a semi-circle. I had plans of doing a focus stack and having both the front and back of this image sharp; I've done similar things and there's a neat optical illusion that gets created. Well, the stack failed. Why? Because when I focused on the darker char in the back, the front side was so out of focus and blurred significantly that I could not blend the images. I even tried by hand and it got ugly. It was to be a 4-image focus stack; 3 up front and 1 for the back. At a focal length of 190mm, f/14 wasn't enough depth.

Couldn't get it to work and so went with a regular shallow dof image with the darker background soft and oof. I like what I ended up with, so I call this a successful failure.

Your thoughts, critiques and suggestion are always welcome!

Lon

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on December 12, 2017 at 11:42 PM

Love the lines and textures here, and the B&W treatment.
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Harley Goldman on December 13, 2017 at 7:22 AM

I am quite happy your focus stack failed. I love this one. The shallow dof works great. Processing looks spot-on. Excellent!

Registered on November 19, 2003, 586 Posts, 11271 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on December 13, 2017 at 8:58 AM

Lon, the sharp silvery charred stands out very well against the oof black char. The enough texture in the oof area to make clear that this is the same stump, which is a good addition. I'm particularly attracted to what looks like a scorched pine needle embedded in the side of the sharp section.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Craig Moreau on December 13, 2017 at 10:26 AM

Lon, I really like the way this worked out with the interior way OOF. It puts all the emphasis on the left side. Had this worked out as a focus stack, I think it would have more of an optical illusion look, like those tree images you had posted a while back, where you don't know what's in front or behind. Those images are very interesting, but I really like this too.

I like the variations in the scale of the "squares" of char, and there is a very interesting shape to the edge of the trunk.

Registered on April 21, 2015, 64 Posts, 584 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Zablotny on December 13, 2017 at 11:19 AM

Hi Lon,

Very 3D with lots of shadow and highlight depth. The shallow DOF made a nice comp for this scene. Well done..................Jim

Registered on January 17, 2004, 705 Posts, 3594 Comments

Comment posted by Preston Birdwell on December 13, 2017 at 11:57 AM

The textures and subtle color are wonderful. At first I was a little bit on the fence with the out of focus area. While it does not dominate the image, it is still a significant portion of it. Now, this is just a thought, but you might consider a crop from the top to the top of that sloping bit of char, and a bit off the right side.

The processing is right on, and this is a well-crafted image!
--P

Registered on November 1, 2003, 471 Posts, 5188 Comments

Comment posted by Paul Breitkreuz on December 14, 2017 at 11:25 AM

Lon, interesting how neat this came out after reading your detailed outline here. I think we've all had some attempts at that "layered" look to a given scene. Most come out being acceptable but not all reach even that level either. This comes away with a very different appeal in the end. I'd say the overall dof works perfectly for this chosen subject. Very nice work...... laugh

Registered on February 25, 2006, 525 Posts, 8448 Comments

Comment posted by Michael Lowe on December 14, 2017 at 12:41 PM

I wish I had a "failure" this good. My failures are just that-failures. devil

Registered on February 11, 2004, 777 Posts, 5252 Comments

Comment posted by Kathy Barnhart on December 14, 2017 at 4:39 PM

This works extremely well as presented and I wouldn't call it a failure at all. I wish my "failures" looked half as good! I like the slight angle of the in focus portion, and the blurred background suggests the other side of the hollowed out log but doesn't give it as much definition. The texture and light on the front portion are wonderful. My favorite of these that you did was the colorful one some weeks ago, but this is a close second.

Registered on November 11, 2011, 404 Posts, 1639 Comments