Trying to create order in chaos is hard and so when I find a through-line in a forest scene, I do my best to work it. Start with the fern and the big log and connect that to the other logs in the back. Maybe it works.
Specific Feedback Requested
Did my strategy work? Thoughts?
Technical Details
Tripod and CPL
Lr to even out tonalities, especially in the far background. Calibration panel to lift blues which affects basically everything. A bit of texture and sharpening. Transform to stand trees up. Didnāt touch saturation or the HSL panel.
I think your strategy worked just fine, Kris. Using the fern and log as the grounding subject and then situating your camera for a pleasing separated set of trees in the background makes this a very strong image. The one distraction is that larger twig in the lower right corner. It keeps pulling my eye away from the rest of the scene. Maybe darken it or clone it out?
Kris, for us desert photogs these kind of scenes are a completely different world or genre. You have done an excellent job with minimizing the distractions or chaos to present this fern as the obvious main attraction. @David_Bostock point on the one branch is an easy fix if youāve a mind to. In the field making a removal in my mind is just helping nature out with some ālitterā cleanupā¦
My brother who is not a photog but goes to the field with me often says Civil War photographer Matthew Brady could take tips from meā¦
Hi Kris
This is such a classic Wisconsin woodland scene with sticks and branches laying everywhere that make composing an image that doesnāt appear cluttered so difficult. I love the fern amid the leaf mulch and the background decaying log. Your idea to connect the foreground log with the moss covered log going into the background was a good one. My eye moves smoothly from the fern to the log pattern. If I was processing this image I would be torn between the image you presented and a more intimate one that excludes the trees in the background.
I took the liberty of playing with your image a little. I cloned out some of the sticks, burned some of the brighter background trees, added a little contrast to the rotting log and then put in a little vignette. I also tried to see how a more intimate crop would look. Not sure i made any improvement to what you originally captured. Over all a beautiful image.
John
Wonderful lines to work with. Iām with the guys on removal of that FG branch. Also wonder about a view from a tiny bit to the right, closer and higher, to maybe make a stronger Z shape, but maybe it wouldnāt work. (And Iām betting you thought about it.)
Iām with @Paul_Breitkreuz with envy for your gorgeous green vegetation!
Thanks @David_Bostock, @Paul_Breitkreuz, @John_Moses & @Diane_Miller for helping me work through this one more thoroughly. Iāve added a second shot with the big branch taken out. I thought about it, but didnāt obviously. I was worried it would be too clean at that point since Iād taken out quite a bit already - mostly leaning against the big log itself. Some branches I could shift in person, others I couldnāt and soā¦
In terms of the composition, yeah, I did move the tripod around a lot. Hereās a quick, down and dirty edit of the wider scene with the tripod placed further back -
So in the end I decided on a landscape that was closer and tighter, but not as tight as the crop John did above. It works, but Iāve done many shots like that and this time I wanted a larger view instead of focusing on the fern alone. To vary the portfolio so to speak. Plus I really fell in love with this bit of woods. The Pine River is a protected waterway and no logging or other management is allowed within 150 feet of its banks. So the chaos is profound.
Anyway, I put an edited photo with the branch removed. See what you think. I wish Iād had the taller tripod for sure, Diane (I had the RRS model we both have that day). The giant stump on the rock shot needed the height, too. Next time Iāll know. And there will be one. This bit of river and forest is too wonderful not to visit again.
Looking at your post of the big scene, when you go back Iād sure be looking at some higher shots of those wonderful trunks and that luscious greenish-yellow leaf color; it looks like there is some good stuff lurking in there.
Thanks @John_Williams - yeah the canopy was just starting to turn when I was there in late September. I think mostly yellow birch was doing its thing. Spoiled for choice in northern Wisconsin forests, thatās for sure!
Iād go nuts trying to decide on a composition here. Now Iām thinking a vertical, with the big fern anchoring the bottom and the BG trees given a lot of room ā sort of a vertical of your last composition but closer to the fern like your original. Leave room to correct the wide-angle distortion. (Would be a good place for a tilt-shift lens.)
Yeah itās crazy in the woods most of the time and Iām working to get better at photographing it. A vertical and tilt-shift might work here. Vertical I can do, but I donāt know a tilt-shift exists for Micro 4/3rds, but Iāve never looked.
There are adapters for full-frame lenses to M43 ā Iād think they should work with a TS lens. They are all manual focus. Or I found this interesting-looking thing:
Iām Completely in agreement with @John_Williams about there appearing to be some really awesome zoomed in and compressed images of the background tree trunks and leaves. Aside from that, I like the rework without the log. The very cool z pattern zig zagging across the image is a great composition. That was really well seen. Itās so hard to see that kind of thing when you are actually there in the field since your eyeās filed of view is about 3 times what this image field of view is so your mind is taking in a lot of information. I would have preferred that the fern be to the left a little more but that likely would not have worked. That glowing light is just awesome.
I think that in the original version the bright background forest diminishes the fern by bringing attention to it. If the intent is to make the fern the main attraction then I would darken the glowing forest. In that sense the ādown and dirtyā is superior because the fern is less prominent.
