Decaying Oak Stump

[xpatUSA]

Felled this one about three years ago. Nature is taking it's toll . .

Today, I noticed the sun shining right on it although, when I got back with the camera, it had moved on a bit



The effect of the sun was to bring out the fungi and the top of the stump while the strong shadows muted what would have been a seriously cluttered background. Original shot in Sigma SD1M low resolution raw 2336x1568px and cropped without re-sampling.

[Shadowman]

Nice capture of the texture.

[marlunn]

nice, i would be tempted to crop in tight to the stump and take out the background entirely - the texture and subtle colours are really good.

[xpatUSA]

nice, i would be tempted to crop in tight to the stump and take out the background entirely - the texture and subtle colours are really good.

Thanks, Mark,

I don't have anything that can remove backgrounds but I gave it some heavy vignetting a try in RawTherapee (my main post-processing app):



I use vignetting quite rarely but it seems to work in this case, do you think?

[IzzieK]

Nice processing...I don't know which one to choose between the two image. One thing is good though is to look expanded in lytebox to appreciate the textures even more...Good job, Tex.

[Wavelength]

The background colors really makes the distinction difficult... yet i like the image without vignette

[xpatUSA]

The background colors really makes the distinction difficult... yet i like the image without vignette

Yes, my plan is to clear away nearby twigs and then wait for the magic moment when a sunbeam illuminates the top of the stump only, thereby giving a high contrast between it and the ground.

RawTherapee has an 'HSV Equalizer' that can change a specific image color independently of the rest so that might help with the background (reduces color contrast).

[xpatUSA]

Yes, my plan is to clear away nearby twigs and then wait for the magic moment when a sunbeam illuminates the top of the stump only, thereby giving a high contrast between it and the ground.

Today's magic moment led to this:



Perhaps a tad more mid-tone, but I was trying to preserve mid-tone contrast . .