Using Kat's Technique - The Cleat

TonyCooper

In "The Refinery" forum Kat Mitchell listed a technique using Filter>Distort>Diffuse Glow on a black and white photo that I thought I'd try on something. I would welcome critiques and suggestions, but I don't want to put this in "The Refinery" because it's primarily a Photoshop technique issue. (Kat's technique is in the "I'll make it easy on ya" thread)

First, here's the original photo (taken on the sponge docks in Tarpon Springs on Monday). Opened from the RAW but not adjusted in any way other than re-sizing it.



I took that, converted it to black and white, used Kat's technique, and did a little fakery by extended the wood on the top left. The left side of the rope, and the frayed end of the rope, are both blown out and the burn tool doesn't help. Here's my modification:




You are welcome to use the original image and come up with your own version. Explain what you did, though.

Perry

I burned your nuts...
Heinz 57. I cropped, increased midtone contrast, glow, darken, glow more.

Oh, and I burned your nuts.

TonyCooper

Perry wrote:

Heinz 57. I cropped, increased midtone contrast, glow, darken, glow more.

Oh, and I burned your nuts.

Burning the nuts is a good thing. I did notice that this cleat had brand-new stainless steel nuts, but forgot about them in the post.

I don't care for the crop. It just becomes a tangle of rope.

Where did you adjust the mid-tones? Curves or Shadows/Highlights? I never know which works best or if they work at all differently.