Pyrophyllite Close Up - Facet Rosette Patterns

Yesterday I went to a rock and gem show at Greensboro Day School.  I was looking for some rock or gem slabs for my oldest daughter, Cinda, who lives in MI.  She has begun to do some jewelry with various stones and made me a few necklaces. I used this opportunity to take some photos that I could post on the blog.  Some of the vendors had rocks or gems that were for display onlyl.  This stone is a stone called Pyrophyllite. One vendor said that her source was from a friend in Randolph County. On the left, I took a close up of the design.  It was not something I wanted to buy so I did the best I could with the lighting situation.  I used native camrea app on iPhone 6.  The image on the R is to show the bigger stone which does not have has much detail of the texture.  Post processing I used  midtones, lightness & darkness sliders and sharpend to give the rosettes more texture. The left images was sharpened a lot - thus the color variation. You see that the facets of this stone not all in the same plane so the top area not as distinct.  The right image is actually the same rock but in bright sun and the color more like it looked to the eye.

Wikipedia:  Pyrophyllite occurs in phyllite and schistose rocks, often associated with kyanite, of which it is an alteration product. It also occurs as hydrothermal deposits. Typical associated minerals include: kyanite, andalusite, topaz, mica and quartz.

Asphalt Cracks for Testure and Patterns - Mosaic Like

 I am always looking for textures and patterns on my neighborhood walks. This image was taken after it had rained of some patterns in the asphalt on the street. That made them show up darkere. I did zoom in when taking the image.  The left image I did a smart fix with exposure with PSE 11.
The right image I chose a sketch filter (notepaper) in PSE 11. I used sliders to get rid of a lot of the specks and to increase the releif.  Then I chose a color with color picker and changed some of the larger blocks with the paint bucket.  Then I chose the texturizer texture filter.   No sharpening was used in either image.  

Ice Pattern 1 - Variations with Post Processing in PSE 11

I managed to capture a few ice designs on my iPhone the last few days...brrh!!   Difficult to push the buttons with gloves in place. The intention was to try playing with some post -processing adjustments. The darker blue less distinct pattern is the original image without editing.  It was late eveing and very slippery to attempt the shot--thus the blue cast which I did not really see when I captured the image.


The right image was a lot of different filters in PSE 11 and you might not be able to tell it originally was texture from ice patterns.  It ended up looking black and white. It took about 6 different filters/adjustments to obtain this effect.   Step 1.  Adjust Brightness and Contrest.  Step 2.   Lighten/Darken Shadows.  Step 4. Sharpen  Step 4. Change to B & W.  Step 5. Pencil Sketch Effect - Line Drawing. 6. Low Key



The image lower left I just changed light/dark sliders and did a moderate amount of sharpening to get the texture and lighter color I wanted.