Looking through a bunch of backlit spiderwebs. I was going for the bright dewdrops and bokeh balls against a dark background, but I tried a reverse gradient map in PS, and really liked the surreal result.
What technical feedback would you like if any? What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any comments welcome. Technically, I was aiming to get the main radial elements of one of the webs in focus, and then let everything else fall where it may. This is a fairly good amount of crop out of the original frame; if I were to do it again, I’d get the big lens out to better frame it in camera.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Single frame, a73r, 24-105mm@105mm, f/16, 1/500s, ISO 400, hand held.
This reminds me of a slide you see under the microscope. Diatoms look like that. The composition is a bit busy, although there is a pattern in the upper right. I’m not sure there was an intent to bring any order out of this.
You say that you did quite a bit of cropping. I think that if you used a longer lens you would have had a shallower DOF and likely not be able to create this very same comp.
It might be interesting to see what you had before inverting the tones.
Very creative and intriguing. I appreciate this orientation which lets lines flow up and to the right. You have introduced to me another technique. Thanks. I really enjoy the resulting semi-abstract image of intricate lines and circles.
For me, the white border allows my eyes to escape the image into the border. I wonder what the effect would be of a darker border.
This looks great. The mix of tones and dot sizes, combined with the webbing is wonderful.
I’m also curious how the “original” tones look in contrast to this, and I’ll echo Dick’s concern about the white border. I imagine, for example, if this were printed, matted and framed, one would at the very least put a thin black undermat under a white mat (if one were to go that route) in order to help define the edges of the print. I would prefer a presentation here with no border at all, or at the very least a thin dark stroke around the image.
Very creative Bonnie, both on the “seeing” and the processing. This makes me think of an electron microscopic view of the structure of atoms. It reminds me of nightmares I used to have during chemistry classes. I love how you have different layers of “atoms” it adds to the surreal nature of this abstract.
This may or may not be to your taste, but I think it would also be interesting to apply some color toning to this B&W image.
Ed, I like your toning. I had done a version with bluish tones, but decided to go plain. Your blues are better than mine, though. Will have to experiment.
I went back and forth on the border/stroke. I was thinking that a dark stroke would be too jarring, making a high contrast feature around the edge.
I like the stroke offering some separation from that white border. And, btw, the color version is much more dynamic than I expected. It’s got just the right balance of subtle colors.
Dear @Bonnie_Lampley, a very creative post processing. I personally did not recognized the nature of the subject until i saw the raw file. Good work, thanks for sharing.
This is in a class of it’s own. Love what you did here. Even reversed, the subject is easy to recognize abut the presentation is vastly improved. I’m partial to the blue one.
