Revisiting the gnarled tree

[ionian]

This tree is one of my favourite subjects. I caught this image yesterday whilst walking, mistakenly used too wide an f-stop (f 5.6) but think it still works as a picture. PP in LR. C&c very welcome.

[Kaye Leggett]

Is it a tree you capture images of often ?

[ionian]

Is it a tree you capture images of often ?

A few times Kaye, some other examples are on my Flickr page I think.

[Shadowman]

Nice effort, there are some interesting patterns on the tree that would be worth emphasizing.

[ionian]

Nice effort, there are some interesting patterns on the tree that would be worth emphasizing.

Thanks John. The bark is twisted all the way up.. I tried to lift the exposure on the tree but it became very noisy; I also shot it as HDR in an attempt to increase dynamic range but it looked horribly fake when processed. Maybe I should lower the exposure on the tree so it's just silhouetted, so the patterns don't distract from the image.

[Nicola]

Good shot.
I would try a less centered framing, maybe cutting a part of the tree on the left (taht is a bit distracting for me) and part of the foreground to keep the ratio.

have a good day
Nicola

[Wavelength]

This is a very nice image; that tree has a very strong character which makes this image talking!!!

[bnnrcn]

Of course it works

[ionian]

Many thanks for the positive words - much appreciated!

I've revisited this image tonight and made a slight update based on comments. I agree about the tree on the left, and I have cropped it to remove this. I have also used the trees in the background as a horizon (they weren't straight in real life but this is a photo and I think it's more pleasing to the eye this way). I've added a graduated filter at the bottom for light fall-off, especially as the foreground is now reduced so the impact of the shadow is not as great.

I had to take it into PS to add some extra space at the top using content aware fill, as the crop had resulted in losing space for the tree to breathe at the top of the image. While there I applied a 4px high pass filter but this may now have over-sharpened it.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Simon,

I think I prefer the second version - mostly because you have lost the competing trunk on the left.

It doesn't worry me that it is centred, I think it has to be, because you are standing in the shadow (although I am but one person).

The only thing I'm not so sure about in V.2 is the gradient filter effect on the foreground grass, seems a little severe to me.

I actually think the aperture used; at f/5.6 was about right, if you'd had much more DoF, too many other competing branches would also have been sharp.

Cheers, Dave

[Shadowman]

Thanks John. The bark is twisted all the way up.. I tried to lift the exposure on the tree but it became very noisy; I also shot it as HDR in an attempt to increase dynamic range but it looked horribly fake when processed. Maybe I should lower the exposure on the tree so it's just silhouetted, so the patterns don't distract from the image.

Simon,

There are always more than one way to capture a vision and your method is a good one with the emphasis on light and shape, a separate method would be needed if you wanted to emphasize texture and patterns. Well worth it if you really want to work this subject. Have fun with it.

[Rebel]

Nice shot, and a very interesting tree.

[bnnrcn]

I agree with Dave about the gradient effect at the bottom. I would remove it as the shadow of the tree adds to the image . The crop looks good though