Silver pebbles (img)

This is a shot I took last weekend, only came round to give it some postprocessing this weekend. I don't know exactly why, but I like it a lot.

Pentax *istD, Sigma 70-300, 4-5.6 APO DG @ 150 mm, 1/250 s, f/11, ISO 200.



Cheers,
Prieni

I think you like it for the glistening texture on the stones.

Perhaps some item of interest (a leaf, some other item) at an appropriate point might add something to the shot?

John,
you might be right there. Also I had to coax out the structure of the stones. As it was shot against the light the stones were quite dark and not much structure to be seen. I'm experimenting a bit with the Corel PhotoPaint function for local equalization. That can add quite a bit of structure when used with layer blending on the original.
This is another example where I used this method:
Pentax *istD, FA J 18-35 mm, 1/180 s, A11, ISO 200.

That's a terrific shot! Bravo! Bravo!

I like that picture a lot. The composition is very striking and the effect suits the subject matter.

Well done!

It looks like an HDR picture, but without the ghastly exaggeration you see on some HDR pictures. Is local equalisation the Corel equivalent?

- Oh and I just noticed the nice starburst effect on one of the pebbles in the first picture.

Very interesting pictures. I love the three-dimensionality of the first one. The second one, however, whilst impressive, has the artificial look of HDR, as Tim says.

G

Thanks all for your kind words.

Tim,
yes, local equalisation is the name of the Corel function. Unfortunately I haven't found anything like it in PS. I tried a plug-in that does something similar but in another way. I can't quite figure out how local equalisation works exactly. The only parameter that you have is the height/width of the equalisation and the plug-in seems not to be as strong in the effect.
On the star, I usually prefer the stars from the Sigma 105 (makes a good effect on lighthouses, for example) but here I think the 70-300 star looks quite good.

George,
you're right, the second one does look artificial (you should have seen the sky before masking it out!) but in this case I find it quit fitting. I did want to bring out the structure of the dilapidated facade a bit more. The first one also doesn't look natural, only it is a bit more difficult, I guess, to put the finger on what happened with it. When I first saw it I thought it's almost b/w, but if you convert it you see that the tone does make a difference.

Before I got PS I only worked in PhotoPaint and here is an old shot where I used the local equalisation without any other layers (apart from blurring the background and masking). So if you have an idea of how to create this effect in PS I would be eager to know...

This one is a scan from a slide, so I don't remember any particulars:

Too much effect I think. Subtelty is the thing needed....

John, I agree! I only posted this to show the 'raw' effect of the local equalisation.

The stones on the beach is a most relaxing picture besides its compositional merits!!

It would have pride of place on my wall, especially at work for its calming effect-
Well done

Neil

Thanks Neil, I might do just that...

Prieni

I love your silver pebbles Prieni, practically a monochrome, makes you want to reach out and touch them...

The only thing I would love to do is clone out that distracting rock, top right, it kinda draws my eye out of the picture.
The image just sparkles tho., great...