Is It...?
...already Halloween?
This wasn't on purpose, believe me ;) It was just another one of these difficult "free" themes that I didn't want to skip because I am a stone/mineral collector of sorts (I have been fascinated with minerals, rocks, and stones since childhood), and I have so many of them (some of which I've already photographed for MMs ruled out for this theme, of course) that, once again, I was overwhelmed. I had a few ideas which I couldn't get right the way I had envisioned, but late yesterday evening I thought "One last try!", and picked the dullest and at the same time weirdest-looking mineral that is in my collection. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the name of this specific mineral, and last night's research yielded no results. I can best describe its smooth, tumble-polished pattern as reminiscent of giraffe skin, oddly shaped greyish-brown opaque shapes segmented by semi-translucent white/light-grey, quartz-like "lines" that look like a net or mesh of river branches washing around the greyish-brown "islands". The closest type of mineral I found was septarium, so maybe that's it, but I'm not sure at all. I think, however, if you zoom in, you can see that it really is a tumbled gemstone and not some oddly-shaped Halloween pumpkin accessory ;)
So yesterday evening, when it already was completely dark outside, a miracle happened. I knew that the white "rivers" were a little translucent, but when I had backlit the stone in daylight, the effect wasn't particularly impressive. But in the darkness, with only a single small light source in the entire room, the rivers started to glow which totally transformed the dull-looking mineral into something almost alive. Hooray :) Maybe I should have done focus stacking instead of taking several single shots, turning the stone around to find its most "attractive" side (this weird-looking pumpkin face, obviously), but I think there's enough sharpness here, and the blurry parts add a somewhat molten look which, for me, enhances the impression of a red hot glow.
The orange-yellow glow is from the LED flashlight that I had placed directly behind the stone (the streak of blue behind the stone is also from the flashlight). I enhanced the saturation and overall vibrancy with the primary color sliders in LR, and in Color Efex, I used a few "Detail Enhancer" control points to bring out the texture. Size of the "maybe septarium, definitely pumpkin face": approximately 3x3 cm / 1,18x1,18 inches.
HMM, Everyone, and have a great week ahead!
Is It...?
...already Halloween?
This wasn't on purpose, believe me ;) It was just another one of these difficult "free" themes that I didn't want to skip because I am a stone/mineral collector of sorts (I have been fascinated with minerals, rocks, and stones since childhood), and I have so many of them (some of which I've already photographed for MMs ruled out for this theme, of course) that, once again, I was overwhelmed. I had a few ideas which I couldn't get right the way I had envisioned, but late yesterday evening I thought "One last try!", and picked the dullest and at the same time weirdest-looking mineral that is in my collection. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the name of this specific mineral, and last night's research yielded no results. I can best describe its smooth, tumble-polished pattern as reminiscent of giraffe skin, oddly shaped greyish-brown opaque shapes segmented by semi-translucent white/light-grey, quartz-like "lines" that look like a net or mesh of river branches washing around the greyish-brown "islands". The closest type of mineral I found was septarium, so maybe that's it, but I'm not sure at all. I think, however, if you zoom in, you can see that it really is a tumbled gemstone and not some oddly-shaped Halloween pumpkin accessory ;)
So yesterday evening, when it already was completely dark outside, a miracle happened. I knew that the white "rivers" were a little translucent, but when I had backlit the stone in daylight, the effect wasn't particularly impressive. But in the darkness, with only a single small light source in the entire room, the rivers started to glow which totally transformed the dull-looking mineral into something almost alive. Hooray :) Maybe I should have done focus stacking instead of taking several single shots, turning the stone around to find its most "attractive" side (this weird-looking pumpkin face, obviously), but I think there's enough sharpness here, and the blurry parts add a somewhat molten look which, for me, enhances the impression of a red hot glow.
The orange-yellow glow is from the LED flashlight that I had placed directly behind the stone (the streak of blue behind the stone is also from the flashlight). I enhanced the saturation and overall vibrancy with the primary color sliders in LR, and in Color Efex, I used a few "Detail Enhancer" control points to bring out the texture. Size of the "maybe septarium, definitely pumpkin face": approximately 3x3 cm / 1,18x1,18 inches.
HMM, Everyone, and have a great week ahead!