Category: Texture

Mitchell South Dakota

Mitchell South Dakota VFW
Mitchell South Dakota VFW

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I was in Mitchell South Dakota a couple of years ago and found myself walking around the business district early in the morning. I came upon the local VFW Post and really liked the way the morning sun was casting shadows on the wall. I liked the juxtaposition of the circular kitchen exhaust fan, and it’s shadow, with the rectangular windows, the plaster over door and the street sign’s shadow as well as the texture of the concrete blocks in the wall. I decided to process this image in Black and White to emphasize the texture and lend an air of nostalgia.

Pattern and Texture Closeups

Closeup of Rusty Retaining Straps
Closeup of Rusty Retaining Straps

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Whenever I’m on a job site I keep my eye open for interesting patterns and textures to shoot as closeups or macro images. On this particular day I was on the job site to capture a large crane that had been brought in for a pick that night. I was scouting for good vantage points to capture the crane at work that evening when I came upon these retaining wall straps in the material storage area. I was intrigued by the surface texture and the undulating pattern that they revealed so I took a few bracket sets to work with later.

I almost always work in HDR and I decided to merge three frames in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and experiment with them. For this first image I applied the Balanced Preset and then boosted the definition to enhance the texture of the oxidized steel and reinforce the pattern. I included the long shadow in the upper left of the frame and the short shadow in the lower right side to create a sense of depth and movement in the final composition. After returning the merged file to Aperture 3 I adjusted the mid-contrast and boosted the  saturation and luminance in the red and yellow color channels. I then applied sharpening and a small vignette to complete the image.

Retaining Straps Closeup
Retaining Straps Closeup

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I used a similar workflow for this image of the same straps that had been opened up and stacked for use. In this case I also worked in the blue color channel to contrast the blue and orange colors.

Closeup of Retaining Straps in Black and White
Closeup of Retaining Straps in Black and White

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The final image is a Black and White version I created using Topaz B&W Effects and a Platinum preset. I also applied a white vignette and a frame from the same software before returning it to Aperture 3 for final contrast and sharpness adjustments.

 

 

Texture Tuesday

Footprint #1
Footprint #1

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Footprint #2
Footprint #2

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Tread #1
Tread #1

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Tread #2
Compactor #1

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When walking around a construction site I like to look for interesting textures and patterns. On this particular day I found these tracks from men and machines on the dry dirt under an overpass. I thought they would be interesting for the patterns of the equipment juxtaposed against the boot prints of the people who were walking in the area. These are HDR images that I used NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and Aperture 3 to process.

Rigging in Black and White

Rigging
Rigging

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Today’s post is a closeup os some of the rigging that is used to move large items with the cranes. This image was originally a three exposure bracket set using -2, 0 and +2 EV exposures which I merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 before taking the merged image into NIK Silver Efex Pro 2 where I used the Antique Plate preset to convert it to B&W. After making a few adjustments to exposure, contrast and film type I returned it to Aperture 3 for sharpening.

Moon Over Angel’s Envy

Moon Over Angel's Envy
Moon Over Angel’s Envy

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This image is a single frame from my exploration of the Vermont American Building last week. I used Topaz Clarity to process it before returning it to Aperture 3 for cropping, sharpening and color channel adjustments.