Fine B&W: Stumps, Pilings, Weathered Roots and other Nature-ravished Wooden Form

"Recently I have had to work my way through loads of my photographs, and in the process of doing so began to wonder about which would work in black and white, I worked in black and white a lot years ago, but recently I find myself thinking in black and white again....."

....... We go to the far north of Scotland soon, and the weather is incredibly unpredictable up there, so working in black and white could be useful on gloomy days.

What are your thoughts about these, honestly please, don't hold back on your thoughts, good or bad, what makes [this particular image of weathered roots against the landscape] work/not work?"

This fine B&W photograph, (#2 of 4 B&W pictures Jan presented here) immediately draws one in and does not let us pass by and dismiss it. Roots like this tell us of history and the final end to all things after whatever fights and struggles, success or failure, here were are on the beach where life came ashore. The life form is just it's skeleton here. but how magnificent!

Discuss Jan's photograph and add your own of wood, beaten, stripped or otherwise marked by nature. We want to enjoy the full range of form, texture and shading that wood might present with the patina of time. In spite of all this force of nature, how amazing Jan's root is! Consider, even now the wood in it is not only remarkable in form but also its structure is essentially intact!

I hope we can see your fine B&W too

Asher

Here's my attempt: A window at the Alamo, San Antonio, TX.

ISO 800, f/4.5, 1/200, handheld. Rebel XTi.

Jan,

Your image is a wonderful composition. The root gathers itself up from the bottom of the frame, and then launches the viewer's eye into the rest of the shot: a shoreline, a lone tree, a moody sky. It works beautifully.

Rachel,

Incredible texture of old wood here. I can't help but wonder what sort of window this was, or is.

My not-so-fine attempt is a bit toward the macro end of the scale. It's a branch caught in the flow of last winter's ice at a local river. The bark was mostly shredded away by the time I stumbled on it early in spring.



Tom

Jan's image is indeed compelling, rich and (as always) worth study due to it's technical and compositional excellence.

Tom, holy Toledo! Does the ghost of Georgia O'Keefe reside in OPF? Lovely.

Tom & Rachel

Thank you very much for yor kind comments, we were driving by this location and it was one of those screech to a halt moments, I'm a bit obsessed with old tree stumps, so I spent sometime shooting this from every conceivable angle, until it started to rain, I hope to go back to this area soon and will try again. I was nevery quite happy with the b&w conversion of this one, it had some blown highlights and a few other issues, in fact I may resurrect the original when I get some time and try again....

Rachel I like your Alamo shot, well done, Tom do you think you could try to bring out the texture of your shot a bit more?

janet Smith said:

Tom do you think you could try to bring out the texture of your shot a bit more?

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Janet, hmmm... Let me work on this. Should be doable.

Tom

This version has more aggressive sharpening and contrast -



The original was taken with available light; overcast sky as I recall. This isn't the sort of light that reveals texture, but hopefully today's processing changes resulted in an improvement. The suggestion is appreciated, in any event.

Tom

Tom,

I too like you photograph and wonder if the detail on the wood can be recovered.IPerhaps some deconvoluting filter like Focus Magic might help here?

Asher

Hi Asher,

Interesting software; thanks for the link.

The bare wood was burnished by winter's passing ice and water, and didn't have much texture (detail) by the time I found it.

At the risk of hijacking this thread (not my intention), texture exists as a combination of the nature of the subject and the ability of the lighting to create shadows. Snow is a good example: texture increases when direct (single source) light is moved off the lens axis, thus creating shadows. In this case, the available light was diffused, and the subject was smooth. Hence, there are very few teeth to pull from this particular chicken's beak.

For the second attempt, I increased contrast and sharpening to brink of "bad results", at least on my monitor, and then backed off a notch. It is certainly be possible to push the envelope beyond my self-imposed limits, but the result may well be a "what should have been" thing, rather than a "what was" thing.

I sincerely hope this doesn't open a can of worms - my opinions are my own.

Tom

Sorry, coming to this a little late.



A burnt piece of driftwood on an Oregon beach. It's actually a color image, but there is no color so I present it as B&W.

What kind of lens did you use, Charles?

Rachel Foster said:

What kind of lens did you use, Charles?

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EF-S 17-85 IS on my original Digital Rebel (300D).

Tom Robbins said:

This version has more aggressive sharpening and contrast

Click to expand...

Hi Tom

Sorry for the delay responding, but I've been in Scotland again. I prefer this second slightly more punchy version, I think you could maybe push it a bit further, but as you say it's just a personal taste thing.....

I found another tree stump down Glen Lyon, think I've got some good ones of it, will post it in a few days when I've had time to work on it, must go unpack now!

Hey Jan,

I'm looking forward to seeing your latest.

Tom

Charles L Webster said:

Sorry, coming to this a little late. A burnt piece of driftwood on an Oregon beach. It's actually a color image, but there is no color so I present it as B&W.

Click to expand...

Hi Charles,

I just came across this picture you posted earlier this year. It is impressive immediately. It's the texture, the repeats that seem to intrigue us. Interestingly, the photograph does not give up it's attraction on repeated visits. Each time, the presentation seems different. Sometimes there are waves, another time mountains and then a crowd of people. I wonder how this printed and what size it is?




This picture needs no further work. Nevertheless, since the esthetics of your picture depends on B&W tones, you might, in addition, explore a B&W conversion and take the picture even further. It could be that assigning more importance to some colors brings out some nuanced presentation which further develops this fascinating photograph. Maybe this could develop into a tripych?

Asher