Three Sides to Every Story

[Manta]

A shot of the Tropical House at Brisbane's Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens, levels adjusted and some diffuse glow added.

I couldn't resist calling it "Three Sides to Every Story".

Appreciate any comments you may have.

Simon.

[Glen]

Simon, it is like one of those puzzle pictures, very interesting

[christiand]

Very interesting subject very nicely photographed.
I like it a lot.

Cheers
CD

[Manta]

Thanks Glen and CD for your comments. Here's the original for comparison. I only took the shot with a view to using the geometry later...

[sirhc55]

2 S’s - superb Simon

[Manta]

2 S’s - superb Simon

Gee, I'm blushing here...

Thanks Chris.

[leek]

An excellent shot Manta...
I also prefer the processed version - What steps did you take in PP???

[Manta]

Hey John - nice to hear from you (and on the very day I did a maintenance check on "Hard Rock" too!)

I was in a bit of a hurry with this one so I basically did a very slight crop, a levels adjustment, some slight cloning to get rid of a few annoying reflections and then the default Diffuse Glow filter settings.

I had originally taken the shot thinking it would make a good black and White study and just ran the diffuse glow out of curiosity. When it came up okay I decided to keep it.

Simon.

[phillipb]

Simon,
I may be going against the trend here, I like them both, but I really don't find the reflections annoying, if anything they add interest as you tend to go past the triangular shapes and look further into the picture.
Well done.

[Manta]

Simon,
I may be going against the trend here, I like them both, but I really don't find the reflections annoying, if anything they add interest as you tend to go past the triangular shapes and look further into the picture.
Well done.

Good point Phillip. The postioning of the reflections in the corners of the triangles helped a lot too, allowing the view from the inside to come out.
I like both shots but prefer the processed as as the surface seems opaque rather than translucent, making the inside view look like a reflection of something outside.

The 'annoying' relfection I was talking about was that line of bright dots in the bottom left corner - they just didn't fit in with the rest of the image. Another one I cloned out was a leaf that was a bit bright in the lower centre.

[stubbsy]

Simon

Superb - I prefer the PP version as I think you focus more on the geometric nature of the image.

[Manta]

Simon

Superb - I prefer the PP version as I think you focus more on the geometric nature of the image.

Yeah...it's pretty hard to miss, isn't it!
Thanks Peter.

[sirhc55]

I like both - I would even try experimenting with colourisation

[phillipb]

I like both - I would even try experimenting with colourisation

By that do you mean each triangle in a different colour?

[Manta]

I've tried some colour variations and will post some soon.

[Manta]

Heavily saturated version:

I duplicated the background, ran a red/blue gradient, twist filter, overlay blend mode. This 'swirled' the colour and saved having to colour individual segments.

[sirhc55]

Wow!

[Glen]

Manta , really like the saturated version, sort of sci fi

[flipfrog]

Manta

i really love this pic (the first version)
nice shapes, lines, composition, and pattern...

[stubbsy]

Manta

Love the colour version. One thing though is it looks less like a photo and more like an illustration. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing

[the foto fanatic]

I think the colour adds a new dimension.
IMHO the original is the weakest of the pix, although the pattern of the triangles had potential.
The latest version is quite striking.

[Manta]

Thanks everyone for the positive comments.

I agree the colourised version has gone beyond a photograph and moved into a more graphical/illustrative area. I'm pleased some of you like it but I still prefer the first processed version. What is obvious here is that strong geometric shapes can lend themselves to all kinds of treatment and can either be embellished into highly stylised and abstract art or even softened and blended for less striking photographic uses.

I've also experimented with using this shot as a texture template and a lightened, desaturated version as a web page background.

Cheers all and thanks for making this shot my most talked-about yet!
(Doesn't say much for my other work, eh?!! )

[dooda]

The first one is terrific. It lends focus on the shapes without totally eliminating the reflections and the inside of it. Much improved from the original. The PP'd one is good, but it is something you'd use for some specific Magazine assignment or something. I likey.