Sycamore Patterns +rp

Hi Preston,

Your comp looks pretty good. Can you bump up midtone contrast slightly to bring out those blue gray tones?  Just a thought--otherwise a very nice abstract pattern on the sycamore bark..............................Jim

I really dig the colour palette and patterns here. Query about the technique which I notice a lot lately : when you have a fairly flat subject, what advantages are there to focus stacking instead of closing the aperture a bit more?

I don't comment generally on abstracts but I like this one a lot because it looks like an aerial photograph of some strange landscape.
 Well seen.

Like the warm light hitting the right side.  Might crop off the left just beyond the bright section to keep a relatively dark left boarder.  Interesting tree, nice find.

I'd say the new lens is working very well, Preston.  Sycamore's are interesting trees.  I once made a cabinet from curly sycamore that was wonderful wood to work with.  The bark abstract looks great, lovely detail.

Thank you for your comments on this image, everyone.

Thanks for the suggestion, Jim. It was a great idea, that I have incorporated here. Let me know what yuo think.

Kah Kit, that's a great question! I did the focus stack due to the curvature of the tree trunk. I looked at exposing at f-16 but the left and right sides were a little soft. The exposures for the stack were made moving the focus point from left to right.
--P

 

Great eye to find this. I like the bumped up contrast of the repost. Do you use LR, PS or a another program for your stacking? I need to try this in the future. Small apertures really soften things IMO.

Oh I see, it looked very flat with the curvature not apparent. 

Your original post is excellent but your repost is most excellent!  The deeper grays make those colors pop.......................Jim

Hey Preston,

Sorry, a bit behind and finally able to comment today.

Great design here - I too love the bark of a sycamore.  Thanks for the repost, I think the contrast is better and it pops just a bit more. The original was slightly flat for me.

For me, I see a crop off the right. While I really like the patterns and design, as we've sometimes said and heard with closeups of bark in particular, we often show too much?  Before the repost I thought the brighter patch on the right took things out of balance a little. Perhaps cropping some or most of the brighter bark on the right might work as an alternative.  There is still a nice variety of tone and color left.  Still, as presented this is a cool bark image.

I also think the use of focus stacking on curved surfaces is great for getting edge to edge sharpness.  Great job!

Lon