I was on my way over to Bosque November 2013, and I found this at a small lake near Nachitoches, La. at around 8 am. I had posted a similar frame on the old NPN. It’s one of very few landscapes I’ve shot using a long telephoto, but that’s how I was rigged at the time, and thought the distant trees on the lake worked well for it.
I did some dodging of some highlights and cloned some small bright bits on the surface. I liked the tawny fall colors of the Cypress, but can’t quite decide on color balance. I cropped to about 80% mainly from bottom right, but I’m still a little on the fence about comp as well as color balance.
Maybe I could trim more from the bottom? Also, is this too busy? I would prefer to minimize significant alteration, but I invite your thoughts.
E-5 Zuiko 300 F/2.8 on tripod, ISO f/5 -1/3EV
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Terrific use of the long lens here. I really like the graphic result of the three main trunks - and their reflection. Only suggestion I have would be to burn down the reflection as it almost seems brighter than the upper section. Dropping the reflection should also help with increasing the contrast as well. Color looks good to my eye.
I wouldn’t crop anything here and I offer no “significant alterations…” other than the burning down of the reflection.
Great job simplifying this with the long lens selection.
But it’s weird. I downloaded your image and saw that it had the ProPhoto RGB color profile and it provided a much more vibrant image in PS CC than what I’m seeing on my monitor, which is weird, since I have FF set up to read color profiles (or at least I thought I did). So I’m not sure why your image looks so much duller than mine. You might want to consider converting images to sRGB before saving and uploading them to be on the safe side.
The only suggestion I have for the image, after downloading it would be to heavily vignette the edges and spotlight the three trunks. Your image, as posted seems to do the opposite. I think the three trunks, and their reflection are a strong central focus for the image, but I think it’s possible to maybe drive the viewer’s eye there better. I’ve illustrated this in the image below (converted to sRGB and embedded that profile before saving). I also re-edited to pull back on the blues/cyans a bit as they were too strong in the end.
Thanks @Lon_Overacker and @Tony_Kuyper for your thoughts. Lon, I like your idea of burning down the reflection, and Tony, I appreciate the advice on color space, and so I’ll do that. The vignette is a practice I’ve not used. In terms of color balance, yours has a whole new look. At least on my monitor (an NEC 2180UX), yours shows the reds much more vivid than the scene as I remember it. Maybe it’s my monitor…?
Anyhow, many thanks for your suggestions.
I find myself drawn to the complexity of the scene. There is so much to see and the more I immerse myself into the picture the more I get from it. There is also the fact that the almost perfect reflection plays tricks because it is forcing me to make sense of a few things. Very creative and very enjoyable.
other than the burning down of the reflection.
