"The Leaf" - (please view large) original is in A2 poster-size

This is wonderful... It almost looks raised due to the shadows on the right.. Detail is amazing and the leaf is perfect. Upper background: some white milky streaks.. Anything that can be fixed in photoshop?

Mary, thanks for your kind comments. The white milky streaks might be due to jpg compression and are part of the background which looks different when printed in highest resolution. - Meantime I retouched the internet version slightly.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Need I say more!!!!

Superb rendering of the skeleton leaf preserved for evermore. The shape and placement is pleasing, but more than that the veins are so delicate, and yet are reminiscent of the very strong [symbolic] tree of life itself - inside the leaf. Amazing! It's like the micro version of the macro world. The background works well with the subject too, being a natural and subtle ochre. Applaudable work, rather Zen.

Great~! You did fix it and it makes a big difference to me... I want this!!! I love it! I don't know why I'm so drawn to this - but maybe Geraldine said it all... Oh, and I upped the asthetics rating from an 8 to a 10 after your fix...

Fabulous achievement. I am wondering, Juergen, what if there were more contrast between leaf and background, say the leaf being a darker green than its surroundings?

Just a thought. A delight as it is, another remarkable offering to the community.

Thanks for all your kind comments and ratings, which made me to go back to the original artwork to have a more critical look at it.

Your suggestion, Seven, is a good idea. In fact, before posting this one I have played around with different versions, some resulting in very beautiful colorful images. As for this one, once it is printed very big, there are contrasting textures. The very delicate structures of the leaf in contrast to a rough sandstone textured background. My point in this piece is to show as much details as possible while the colors have to step back. I might post another version which has a totally different feel.

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I can imagine that once printed there will exist ample contrast, not so much in colour as in texture. Good point. Forgot to add rating earlier - duly corrected.

Absolutely outstanding!

Scanning a leaf is neither new nor necessarily creative - but it is fun to do. In this case the results are rather boring. The composition is static (and bad), the colors are boring, and there is zero emotional impact. In all honesty, this image should be rated in the 3 to 5 range. I read your bio, and if true, is most commendable. I also looked at a lot of your pictures. Let me offer a little friendly advice. Stick with music! I am being this brutal because of the gushing crap I have just read - and the crazy marks. Forgive me. I am sure I am over reacting.

Donal, thanks for your honest comments and rating.

I feel very honored that you as a seasoned professional photographer took the time to view my photos. You say " The composition is static (and bad), the colors are boring, and there is zero emotional impact...". It makes me curious how you would have composed a leaf and your choice of colors. As for "emotional impact", that I think depends both on the image and the viewer. If communication cannot be established on the same level, certainly there is ZERO IMPACT. Since you are new to photo.net, I suggest you look around and you will find lots of photographs in this community which YOU like.

Please let me know when you have uploaded your own portfolio that I can see how I can learn from your skills ;-)

 

One thing about , lets say art in general, is that it is totally subjective. I am not a seasoned proffessional, but I like what I like and that's it. Juergen, I personnaly think that all your photographs are of proffessional quality. It seems to me that you take great care to creat an image on film ( or media) that is in your mind. To that you're successful! To please everyones taste, you can never be!

Keep up the great work

Rob

Wonderful shot of nature at macro, I like it as many others do, BUT WHO THE HELL IS Donal Raeburn , even my shots are better than his, and thats saying something! keep going my friend you're doing it spot on. Marc

i saw many leafs in a mango's store.....

good work

Exquisite! Even the background represents a wonderful gradation of tones from top to bottom. This is definitely first-class work, both technically and aesthetically.

Just started reading a book about Fox Talbot, who made similar contact photograms in the mid-1800's from botanical samples send to him by his close friend, Charles Darwin. Full circle!

Given that the composition is fairly straight forward, that the

shape is pleasing but not particularly complex, that there are no

warm colors or high contrast, then it must be about texture.

Sometimes the best way to let us know what you want us to look

at is to eliminate everything else. Well done. . . . another case

where the 72 dpi monitor can't possibly do this justice.

Looks OK, and you are obviously good at PS, but it's not a photo-- perhaps "scan of the week." Aesthetically there's nothing displeasing about this image, but there's nothing that makes it stand out IMO either. The lighting is too flat to really make it alive for me.

Regarding if this is the photo of the week or the "scan of the week", photography is the art of creating with light. Whether we choose to do it with 35mm film, pinhole cameras, digital cameras, or scanners is irrelevant. The word "photography" implies no implementation or even medium, so this image is no less a photograph than any other image created through the capture of light.

 

As for the image, its greatest success is calling attention to the intricate detail of the leaf, but to me the background is lacking. The graininess does not appeal to me.

I'm seriously not interested in the debate of whether or not this is classified a photo. It's all been trawled through before, the ins and outs and intellectualizing. Not that it isn't a worthy subject for debate, but I would hate to see the still, sublime beauty of this picture interrupted and almost desecrated by what amounts to a bunch of contrary opinions catapulted to and fro in order to 'prove' this or that.

I find this picture to be elevated above and beyond the majority of *real photos* [ie captured in camera]. The technique is interesting indeed, as you will no doubt find, if Juergen finds the opportunity to describe not only the scan capture and PS work, but also in making a 'digital negative', and in his Van Dyke selenium toned prints of this leaf [which are all totally unique].

The leaf picture for me, seems to honour the life of the tree, it's neverending seasonal changes, and perhaps symbolically representing the grand tree of life itself in microscopic form. Perhaps my spiritual interpretation was not intended by the artist, but I like it and I'm sticking to it!

Finally, regarding technique [both capture and print], I have found Juergen to be the eternal optimist. The time and effort invested to achieve any one of his concepts is applaudable, and he has been relentless in pursuing his aims, and in trying again and again until it works. Experimentally, Juergen has never failed to inspire me. Congrats on a well deserved 2nd POW!!

I think this would look nice in a square format, with a large "natural-paper" mat around it, with a deep brown, wide flat-bezel frame.

 

And it should be placed on an eggshell colored wall.... ;)

It's a very nice scan. I like the shade of green and the intricate texture and patterns of the leaf. I do not like, however, the mottled/noisy/grainy look at the top third of the image. I think I'd have preferred a good macro shot of this leaf on high-quality slide film to avoid this problem.

Juergen is not one of those photographers who *need* Photoshop to produce something great, and I think he's among the very best landscape photographers on this site. So I'd say that any of the following pictures would be a better selection for POW, since they are absolutely fantastic straight or almost straight out of the camera captures:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo.tcl?photo_id=835391

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=1034747

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=884612

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=936860

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=898701

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=463590

The 2 first links are imo the 2 best shots Juergen has uploaded here so far, and I'd say that his infra-red work is just amazing. Juergen is also one of these photographers who has the patience and determination it takes to bring back some truely fantastic scenaries, where clouds and trees seem to dance together, where Earth and Skies seem to interact... In that sense, this POW isn't really presenting us what is, the me, the real and the best Juergen.

This being said, I'm still glad to see Juergen getting a second deserved POW, as it gave me a good reason to look through his portfolio again just now, after so long...:-)

This picture is obviously very beautiful. Perhaps even flawless. I also find the technique quite interesting. The technique and treatment are quite original, but... Subjectively speaking, I don't find the subject as interesting as the pictures I linked to in this post.

Here, I see Beauty, yes, but a cold beauty that relies on perfection and details. I can't see the true magic of nature here, whereas I I can see in in the fires of clouds in the sky and the amazing trees I refered to above.

I'll conclude with this: I love Juergen's work as romantic nature photography. This leaf picture is almost too nice to be true, surely too perfect to be natural, and just lacks a bit of "soul" - FOR ME.

" This leaf picture is almost too nice to be true, surely too perfect

to be natural,"

 

But it is perfect, nice and natural, and that's the point of the

picture for me. It's not about nature in context, but in its' creation,

or should I say evolution.

Since it is "written with light" I think the discussion about being a photo or not is irrelevant.

 

I think it is great to put this photo forward as photo of the week. It is a deviation of the warm-tone obsession that some people seem to have when considering good photography. I think this is a great image with a very subtile color use. The leaf itself forms a good visual composition.

 

Independent whether the photographer has yes or not better photo's, I think this photo is worth being photo of the week. IMHO this image breaks with the classical photographic techniques and with the classical color use. Although this deviations, the result is a visual very pleasing image. It is only given to the best, deviating from the norm and keeping all aspects under control so that the result becomes a step forward in the photographic evolution.