Evolution of a sort of abstract

Here we go. How to make an abstract image in two easy steps, take photo, then develop. Though I'm not sure why I'm telling you this, because now you'll be able to do it yourself, and you won't need to come to my blog.

First photo is right from the camera. This is kind of flat, since it's a JPEG produced from the RAW information. It's perfectly obvious what it is, and it's a bit dull. There's some out of focus in the top left corner that needs to be cropped out. In some cases you want the background to be out of focus, but that's not what I'm doing here.

Second is what I'd consider normal tweaks for a nice photo. Cropped, tweaked to bring up the colour and texture. It brings up the lines leading from top left to bottom right. Kind of a pity there isn't something there to be a splotch of colour or the focus of attention, but you can't have everything.

Third is playing with settings to produce something more abstract, where it's not immediately obvious what it's a photo of. The colour is more unnatural, I've played with sharpening and texture and other things. There were several preset choices that looked good here, but it wasn't as tough a choice as this one.

This lets the eye and brain wander around, looking at the lines and shapes and colours, letting the emotional impact settle in, rather than saying "another pretty landscape, next."