PAD 234 - Wet Tree Trunk

[Mike Farley]

Day 234 and when I went to a recent Ansel Adams exhibition, I was impressed by the dark and light tones which he achieved in some of his monochrome images. This wet tree trunk provided an opportunity to see whether it is possible to replicate the effect using digital, rather than film. I think it comes reasonably close, but I am not going to be so presumptious as to believe I can in any way begin to approach the abilities of the Master!

Canon EOS 7D
EF 85 f/1.8 USM
1/80 sec
f/2
ISO 1250

[Paul Heester]

This treatment works really well and the recent rain has given it a great sheen. I can imagine a duotone effect also coming out well. Reminds me of the artistic nude poses of dancers/athletes that show of muscle definition.

[Mike Farley]

Thanks, Paul. I had not previously made the connection with artistic nudes, but I can see the similarity. Perhaps next time I am in the woods I will take some oil with me and try rubbing it into some suitable bark!

Perhaps I will try a duotone on this image at some point and see how it works out.

[davidc]

Perhaps next time I am in the woods I will take some oil with me

I read this and nearly choked on my coffee... please flag any images like that as Not Safe For Work

[Mike Farley]

Perhaps next time I am in the woods I will take some oil with me

I read this and nearly choked on my coffee... please flag any images like that as Not Safe For Work

[Nina]

Great result here Mike. Do you mind sharing with us what software/plugins you used to achieve the almost metalic look of the bark. If you could post the original that would be very helpful.

[Nina]

Bump!

[davidc]

My guess after 15 mins fiddling in silver efex pro was the "wet stones" preset

[Mike Farley]

My guess after 15 mins fiddling in silver efex pro was the "wet stones" preset

Kind of correct. I started with "Wet Rocks", but tweaked it.

This is on my list of things to do and I have not forgotten about it.

[Mike Farley]

This is the shot as taken.

Wet Tree Trunk - As Taken

Wet Tree Straight.jpg (123.29 KiB) Viewed 2827 times

After Lightroom Adjustments. In addition to the changes shown, I added 31% Noise Reduction. I boosted Clarity as I wanted to get some definition in the tree trunk.

Lightroom adjustments

Capture3.JPG (161.76 KiB) Viewed 2827 times

SEP2 processing. As David has already surmised, this is based on the "Wet Rocks" preset, but I needed to tweak things a bit to get the effect I was after.

SEP2 adjustments

Capture2.JPG (26.18 KiB) Viewed 2827 times