FebFest my neighborhood

[Drlangfo]

First photo post. In January Shane suggested taking photos in the neighborhood (1.5 mi radius where live) as a February Fest Challenge. This will be my first posting for February. The photo was taken out my back yard as the sun was coming up after a couple days of rain resulting in steam coming off all the vegetation. Once looking at it I realize this may have been a good opportunity to do a HDR photo but that didnt occur to me at the time. Did a little pp messing around in photoscape (new to pp). Comments welcome.
shooting info Canon Powershot SX50 f5.0, iso 80 1/160s

[ShaneS]

David, I'm so glad that you decided to follow though with this idea. Very natural backyard you have there! I have yet to get my first shot up

I like this shot but wonder if a crop to remove the tree on the left (and possibly the farthest one on the right) might improve the composition? Being new to PP I have no suggestions on that front.

You have now nudged me in the right direction in terms of this project - thanks!

[Mike Buckley]

Very nice back yard! And welcome to CiC!

It's a very stylistic, creative presentation that is the sort of thing that people will probably like a lot or not at all with very little middle ground. Regardless, good for you for your creativity!

Contrary to Shane's thinking, I like the tree on the far left. Perhaps bring out more detail, which would be a good suggestion also for all of the large trees.

I'm trying to figure out why there is no shadow being made by the second tree from the left.

[HAZZA]

Very nice backyard David, interesting and effective contrast in lighting

[ShaneS]

I took a look at this again on my home monitor and can now see Mike's point - the tree on the left looked completely black on my monitor at work and now I can see some detail. The tree does provide some depth to the image and adding detail to them all would be interesting to see.

My thinking behind the original crop suggestion was to really bring the focus of the image to the steaming ground cover and light but I think it could work either way.

[Drlangfo]

Thank all for the feedback. Still figuring it out. I did play with cropping that tree on the left but it left the rest of the photo too centered. When I tried to lighten the trees it over exposes the rest of the photo. Still learning post production options. Thank again.

[Mike Buckley]

When I tried to lighten the trees it over exposes the rest of the photo. Still learning post production options.

Once you learn how to select part of the photo, in this case the trees, so you can make an adjustment that affects only the selected area, you will have immediately improved your post-processing skills and results. If your software doesn't allow you to select part of the photo, it's important to change to a different software program. There are plenty of free and inexpensive programs that will allow you to do that.