Organic network

Here's a picture to consider:





Your comments are invited!

Hi,

Just some extra infos about this picture : it has been shot at 80 ISO, f5 and 1/200 s, at about 32mm focal length (eq. 24x36) in jpeg mode with my Lumix LX3.

As i don't like to spend a lot of time in digital retouching, i try to avoid RAW shots and to get good capture parameters with direct jpeg.

I use "Smooth" image mode on my LX3, with all default parameters except noise reduction which is set to +1 or +2. I consider it's the best mode to get natural and bright colors, with quite neutral rendition.

I have adjusted levels in Photoshop, to punch the picture :
1. Save picture as TIFF format
2. Convert picture to 16 bits mode (to avoid too much destructive modifications)
3. Image > Auto-contrast to get correct exposure levels
4. Add Curve layer with "S" shape to improve contrast
5. Flatten image
6. Convert it to 8 bits mode and jpeg export

Hi Cedric,

I was just browsing the Fora and I noticed your request for critique and the lack of any response. I should say something useful and constructive but I am caught with not much to say.

I haave admired many of your pictures. This picture has some natural aspects to it. Technically it is fine, well focussed and exposed. But the subject of the photo is not clear to me. Is the intent to protray some systematic natural pattern, something that you thought had some unique character? I don't know.?

The pattern seems almost random and in that sense it is something like a Jackson Pollock painting
If that is the intent, it might work better to eliminate the vertical elements?

I'd be interested to know what attracted you to this subject and why you rendered it as shown.

-Nat

Hi Nathaniel,

Well, i was balanced between two feelings when i saw this old wall : first, it is just a wall, with strongly deteriored paint which is slowly flying away... But paint itself also forms a complex pattern, a colored network which evokes a biologic phenomena.

Then, these two facts make me think about entropy, about a kind of "organic network"... but i agree it is not clear. Maybe title is not appropriated. I let vertical elements to keep strong presence of reality, to be able to easily identify the wall and to not have a too abstract scheme.