I had a pocket of free time today, so I wandered into the neighborhood garden with one goal in mind, hunt for texture. Leaves never disappoint. They carry so many surfaces in a small space, matte, glossy, veined, speckled. In black and white, those subtle differences speak louder, so I built this four-frame window around the patterns I found.
Top left is a coarse, almost armored leaf. The speckles and raised veins catch the light like tiny scales. I kept the blacks deep to let the ridges pop and pushed the highlights just enough so the grain reads clearly without blowing out.
Top right, a single petal rests on pebbled ground, soft on rough. I loved the contrast of curves against a field of tiny stones. During editing I lifted the midtones and nudged clarity to separate petal sheen from the gritty background.
Bottom left is all about flow. Broad leaves fold into each other, creating gentle S-curves. Here I went lighter on contrast and leaned on tonal dodging to keep the transitions smooth while maintaining the darker marbling running through the center.
Bottom right shows a cluster of epiphytic leaves clinging to a textured trunk. The bark has its own topography, so I deepened the blacks and added a touch of structure to let the layers stack, leaf over root over bark, without getting muddy.
Editing these was simply fun. Tweaking highlights, lowering black points, and guiding local contrast helped the textures reveal themselves. It’s a small upgrade each time, but seeing definition sharpen and forms separate is rewarding, like watching a print appear in a darkroom tray.
Thanks for spending a moment with these quiet subjects. I hope you’re having a good weekend wherever you are. May you find something textured and interesting right outside your door.
”To see in color is a delight for the eye, but to see in black and white is delight for the soul.”
~ Andri Cauldwell
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