Slow Breath

[AntonioCorreia]

The contained silence of this landscape is fantastic, where the vastness imposes itself without the need for grandiloquence.
The bare trees, like white skeletons lost in the intense green, mark the time of a past that is visible but nevertheless already distant. There is no shadow in these trunks, just memories.
The meadow stretches in all directions, cradled by a sky heavy with clouds and the line of mountains in the background, which rests like a distant limit.
The wind is felt even without hearing it, the cold is guessed even without touching it.
In this image there is solitude, yes, but also space. Space to stop, look and listen to what the silence has to say.

[billtils]

I'm trying hard to like this one Antonio, but it doesn't quite work for me.

The problem was that those lovely leading lines created by the trees and undultions in the grassy areas don't actually lead to anything of interest.

I tried cropping to give a triangular image with the trees on or near the vertices to contain the area of interest but wasn't sure ...

[AntonioCorreia]

Thank you, Bill, for your comment.
In fact, I have to admit that you are right. Not really one of my best photographs. Perhaps I was fascinated by the environment, but I confess that on location, it wasn't easy for me to stop to take this photo.Obviously, that isn't and cannot be a justification, or rather, it's a weak, poor one.
.
I opened the photo, gave the mountains in the background a few touch-ups, made a new slightly tighter framing, and here is the result which...In the end, I'm just trying to save a photo that perhaps isn't even worth the attempt. Or maybe it's just me who doesn't know any better...

[Geoff F]

The edit looks better to me although I suspect the foreground would benefit from a fraction more brightness - but not the sky which is almost at the stage of maximum highlights now.

[AntonioCorreia]

Just a tad...
Cheers !

[Round Tuit]

Antonio,
If you make it more about the trees, you could end up with a keeper.



What do you think?

[AntonioCorreia]

My dear André,
What a magnificent and valuable suggestion! After so many adjustments and helpful inputs from this forum, I truly improved the image and I believe I’ve finally arrived at what is indeed a keeper !
I tightened the crop, reduced the saturation, removed a few distracting spots, darkened the overall scene and lightened certain areas.
Ah yes, I also made the trees pop although they had already been adjusted previously, but now with more emphasis.
It now feels genuinely well-balanced.

Thank you so much, André, for your wonderful suggestion. Now it really does look very good.
That said and I must insist, it’s still not one of my best...

[Round Tuit]

My dear André,
What a magnificent and valuable suggestion! After so many adjustments and helpful inputs from this forum, I truly improved the image and I believe I’ve finally arrived at what is indeed a keeper !
I tightened the crop, reduced the saturation, removed a few distracting spots, darkened the overall scene and lightened certain areas.
Ah yes, I also made the trees pop although they had already been adjusted previously, but now with more emphasis.
It now feels genuinely well-balanced.

Thank you so much, André, for your wonderful suggestion. Now it really does look very good.
That said and I must insist, it’s still not one of my best...

This looks good to me. Glad I could be of assistance.

[DanK]

I agree: Andre's edit is a very big improvement, and I like the image. However, I do have one additional suggestion.

I don't think your reduction of saturation helps. I'm not a fan of saturation and almost never boost it in my own photos, although I do modestly boost vibrance a lot. More often than not, if I fiddle with saturation, it's to reduce it. However, in this case, that last edit has two negative effects. First, it makes the grass, which still makes up about half the image, dull. Second, it reduces the color contrast between the trees and the grass, making the trees stand out less. That's the opposite of the intent of Andre's edit, which was to make the photo about the trees.

Just my two cents.

[AntonioCorreia]

Dan, thank you for your always helpful comment.

Let me start by saying that I’ve been practising with Curves with some success, always learning, of course.
I’ve noticed, for instance, that when we hover the little arrows over the image, a point appears on the curve, allowing for slow adjustments using the keyboard arrows. That’s really handy.
This is especially useful as I don’t have a graphics tablet, at least not yet.
On the other hand, I’ve never seen this method explained anywhere. I hope I’ve expressed myself clearly enough.
.
Now, regarding this image.
If you don’t use Saturation or rather, negative Saturation, then how do you go about it?
I find the Colour Mixer quite interesting and potentially capable of surprising and creative results, especially when we shift the Hue.
This tool is also available within masks, though presented a bit differently, which I personally think is a pity as there should be more consistency and uniformity across similar commands, which would make learning and using these tools much easier.
Within masks, colour selection is indeed more precise…

Cheers !

[Round Tuit]

Dan, thank you for your always helpful comment.

Let me start by saying that I’ve been practising with Curves with some success, always learning, of course.
I’ve noticed, for instance, that when we hover the little arrows over the image, a point appears on the curve, allowing for slow adjustments using the keyboard arrows. That’s really handy.
This is especially useful as I don’t have a graphics tablet, at least not yet.
On the other hand, I’ve never seen this method explained anywhere. I hope I’ve expressed myself clearly enough.
.
Now, regarding this image.
If you don’t use Saturation or rather, negative Saturation, then how do you go about it?
I find the Colour Mixer quite interesting and potentially capable of surprising and creative results, especially when we shift the Hue.
This tool is also available within masks, though presented a bit differently, which I personally think is a pity as there should be more consistency and uniformity across similar commands, which would make learning and using these tools much easier.
Within masks, colour selection is indeed more precise…

Cheers !

Antonio, If I wanted to increase the contrast between the trees and the grass, I would select the green using the "select color range" sub menu of the "select" menu then click on a green area and adjust the fuzzyness slider to refine the selection. I would then use a "curve" layer or a "selective color" layer to darken the grass.



This is too dark for my liking but it illustrate the process.