Ever since I read the tutorial called "Bas relief - Traditional and Digital, by Slynky and Alpa", I have been OBCESSING in PaintShop Pro. There is some really subtle stuff you can do with this bas relief technique when you use the result as a new layer, close way in on the shadow and highlight values in 'levels' (leave the gamma on 1.0, and keep the center-pointer in the center of the bell-shaped histogram), put it on top of the original, do an 'overlay' blend mode, and then nudge this new overlay layer around till you find the spot -- baby. I'm tellin' ya -- there's something to this... Here is a picture that I really like. It's an old building (OLD for around here) in downtown West Bend, Wisconsin USA. I've been using it to experiment with this technique. There's a problem, though: The subtle textures and shades that gained with this technique isn't visible in a little image like this, but in a high res print it looks way-good. I'll post some details from the full size file in subsequent posts... Joe

Like this one: Look at the texture on those shingles, and how the frost looks on the shady side of the turret roof, and the detail on the decorative cone-cap...

Even way in the shadows.. Look at the texture of the brick, and branches and sky reflecting in the window...

Dig this impressionist like quality in the lower-left corner of the image, comparing the blue sky illumination on the north wall of the building in the background, with the low morning sun putting golden light on the turret...

Gotta love it.

Well - for these I actually had varying amounts of a few different layers of bas relief/shift thing going on. It was a pretty ecclectic affiar. Joe

I love the frost on the north-facing attic window.

Joe, your enthusiasm is catchy! You're images demonstrate some great effects with this. I've got a feeling your experimentation will come in handy for the "textures" theme for this month! The way you are getting into all this so deep, it wouldn't surprise me to see you having "tutes" of your own soon - I've already suggested Misha write some! The wealth of knowledge, experience and dedication to experimentation in this forum is mind-blowing! Good fruits of your imagination and labours Joe! ;-)>

You got some great effects with this, Punckclown's right about fitting the texture theme! Some of thes look like they have been printed on water colour paper with the texture, I love what you've done with the frost & reflections. This technique seems so simple when you first read it but the possibilities seem endless...

Sorry, not your bas-relief technique, but some of the detail photos you've presented here excited me a lot, as the process of selecting details as stand-alone photos from a larger photo (cropping out many photos from a single photo) is something that I like very much to do...

I do not know whether you've done careful crops to obtain "detail photos on their own" or not, but I liked the 3rd and the 4th details a lot, esp. the 4th..!
That 4th one with the contrasts in color, the geometrics, the textures, and the arch and the black dot on the background wall is a beautiful abstraction, IMHO... :)

Way cool stuff Joe! Looks like you had fun with these. :~)

Thanks, All, Joe