I’m sharing another image taken near the Devil’s Garden Campground in Arches NP in March.
I’m interested in knowing whether the composition works for you. I was drawn to the tree and before I noticed the moon. I did clone the moon down from higher in the frame, but it was captured within the same frame (unlike my last image from this area).
Those orange rocks work well against the blue sky, and that moon does add an extra interest in the it!
I like the nice shapes of the tree and think some local dodging on the lighter parts of its branches maybe can make it stand out even more. I personally would clone out the rock in the lower left corner and replace it with some of the greens. Also cropping 1% inwards from the right would remove the very narrow line of blue sky next to the rock and help the composition. Just my thoughts. 
What do you think?
The image is lovely and does work for me, Marylynne. The moon and clouds are great additions to this scene as is the subdued lighting on the rock formations. I think @Ron_Jansen’s couple of minor suggestions would elevate this another notch. I could also see a touch more saturation, but that is more of a personal choice and not a critique. Beautifully done.
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions, Ron and Ed. I’m attaching two revisions for comparison. In this one, I dodged the branches a bit, but I think that makes it blend more with the rock. In the next one, I burned the branches a bit, which actually makes it stand out a bit more.
Thoughts or preferences?
ML
My thoughts on seeing your first image was that the tree did not stand out from the canyon wall. I think your last post with the greater saturation and burning of the branches really nailed it. The red rocks against the blue sky is stunning.
I am really liking the last repost, Marylynne. I think those couple of small tweaks have nailed it. The warm tones of the rock stand out beautifully with the cool ones of the sky.
Marylynne,
Beautifully seen and captured. The few things that I notice have all been mentioned and your last post pretty much takes care of things.
The big one was the rock at the bottom. yeah, we often can’t compose any different and are limited in our positions and options. I’m good with the cloning and would have done so myself.
That cottonwood is a great tree but as mentioned, just wasn’t standing out well enough. And without some special light… darkening was the way to go. Lastly, good call by Ron with the slight crop off the right.
Thanks for taking the time to rework and post.
Lon
Marylynne, I like the scene, and the saturation / cropping changes improve the image nicely. I 'm going to offer a dissenting opinion, and say that I prefer your first re-post to the second one. I think the second re-post makes the tree stand out more, but I also think it looks slightly harsh, and it now competes somewhat with red rock for attention. I could see taking the tree slightly darker than the first re-post, but not as much as the second re-post, the second loses too much texture and detail in the tree bark for my taste.
Thanks, Ed. I found the silhouette rather striking, but looking closely, I’m not sure it would print well. I dialed back all of the burning values. I also pulled back a little on a white part of one of the rocks.
Ed and All: Let me know if this hits the sweet spot for you.
ML
Sorry, I’ve been travelling and offline. I really like this last one you uploaded, les agressive burning, but the tree still stands out! I expected some dodging to help too, but noticed it didn’t seem to work in your upload. I would avoid loosing detail in the shades of the tree, as mentioned above.
It’s a lovely image!
Sorry, I missed this one too. If this is ultimately intended for print, I agree that the silhouette will not work. If printing is really your goal, I would even restore slightly more tree detail to the last repost (rest of shadows are good though), although I think your last repost works fine for web display.
