Weekly Abstract and Experimental Thread #16 (7-8-2025)

The weekly Abstract and Experimental thread
This weekly thread, starting on a Tuesday, allows us to showcase our abstract and experimental photos and get some feedback.
Opening up discussions, not only on content, style, composition & techniques, but also on the creativity of the image.

It’s easy to participate
Post an image with a title and description. To make it easier to view in the forum, all comments should include the original title and at least one of the original images as a quote.

Thread Guidelines:
This weekly thread is for sharing and developing abstract and experimental photography skills.
We want to see wild, creative photography.
Give your entry a clear title and mention the technique used.
Provide constructive feedback on others’ images.
Try to go beyond simple praise or dismissal and explain why you like it, or what caught your eye.
”Likes” are encouraged too.
Negative feedback and suggestions are also OK (be polite, honest, and constructive).
Giving feedback is just as important as receiving feedback, both help to improve our artistic and technical skills.

What is an abstract or experimental photo?
Different ways to see and investigate the world around us. Abstract photography reduces a subject to shapes, tones or colors making it unrecognizable. Abstract subjects are everywhere.

Experimentation might include, Infrared, dragged shutter, zone plate, motion, 3D, fluorescence, multiple exposure, birefringence, ultra violet, optical including adapted lenses, tri color, fractals, manipulated Polaroids, pinhole, Kirlian (bioelectrography) and many other methods. Experimentation can be for artistic expression or pure science. It is often more difficult than standard types of photography. This is fine, we aren't expecting perfection. Every experiment enhances knowledge. Your idea can help others explore the universe around them. We love experimentation. You can explain your process or keep it a secret.

This will be a looser collection of photos compared to other weekly threads. This is good. It will be a place to get away from standard animals, babies & sunset photos. We don't hate animals, babies or sunsets. Show us your creative abstract and experimental images.

Thanks for looking and participating,
barondla

Backlit door and blinds at night. Using the 2.7mm F1.8 Fujinon fisheye lens harvested from a security camera. This is a C mount lens that fits a Pentax Q camera using the correct lens adapter. The lens is always wide open and focusing is by screwing the lens in and out of the adapter. Lens covers wider than 180 degrees on this camera land requires the use of the Q electronic shutter.
Thanks for looking and participating,
barondla

Okay, this is another infrared image, made just a couple of minutes from my last one. The light is coming from a different direction, that is about it. The colors I got are totally different!

2025:07:07 10:55:32 : NIKON D810 : 24-120mm f/4.0 : 40mm : 100 ISO : F6.3 : 1/160 sec : 1 EV : 680 nm

Wonderful image. It is amazing that lighting direction affects color so much. Infrared is strange and fascinating. Are you using any special post processing techniques to get these magnificent colors?
Thanks for sharing and participating,
barondla

I swapped the red and blue channels of the RBG IR image. This was done using a Photoshop action I got from LifePixel. This gave a blue/cyan sky with mostly white foliage. I then played with the saturation of each color palate in the hue/saturation layer. Low and behold, some of the white foliage turned back to other colors as the slider got closer to 100%.

This shows how I did it with the previous image:

I'm almost afraid to post this one. This is something like a nightmare! I'm thinking Stephen King here!

2025:07:07 10:54:41 : NIKON D810 : 24-120mm f/4.0 : 40mm : 100 ISO : F6.3 : 1/160 sec : 1 EV : 680 nm

Appreciate your tutorial. The explanation and screenshots are clear and easy to understand.
Thanks for sharing and participating,
barondla

Excellent capture. It does have a Stephen King vibe. Thanks for the explanation and illustration. It helps us visualize your process.
Thanks for sharing and participating,
barondla

I'm always envious of the IR photos, especially those of trees. Because I don't have an IR converted camera and won't be getting one, I have my own means of doing pseudo iR in post processing. Years ago, a forum friend gave me his recipe, and I've tweaked it to make it work for me. It begins with the scene itself, and requires a certain type of harsh light from a certain angle, and it works best with the bright lime green leaves of late spring. Then certain settings that aren't necessarily typical for the scene. When I rounded the curve in the south unit of Zion NP in May and saw the cottonwoods lit up from behind, I immediately thought of this kind of image. Of course it isn't as pretty as the ones joman is posting in this thread, but it's fun anyway! (the contrail added an extra bit of weirdness so I left it there).

I think this works very well! I've never been able to do this with a normal camera.

I've learned a few things lately about processing false color IR. So, I decided to reprocess an older image.

2023:05:06 11:57:42 : NIKON D810 : 24-120mm f/4.0 AF D G VR : 82mm : 64 ISO : F7.1 : 1/60 sec : 1 EV : 590 nm

Steve Thomas