The leaves of Beech trees are amazing! They turn into all the colors of Autumn in just one tree!
Anything
Is this a composite: No
Twisted the camera while pressing shutter. 1/6, 300mm, ISO 100, f/6.3, Nikon D3400
Another image was well done.
I’m drawn to abstractions, and this works well. The multitude of well-defined and not well-defined arcs is fascinating. At one time, they are partial crescents, and at another glance, deformed triangles. It’s an illusion created by shifting positive and negative.
The twist of the camera advances the image from pedestrian to exciting.
I agree …well done Vanessa. I enjoy ICMs and enjoy making them even better. The color palate is inviting and also like the crescents with just a hint of the branch which gives some orientation. I think ICM works best , many times, when there is at least a hint of the source.
I think the image as presented is slightly underexposed, and would benefit from some added mid-tone contrast, which would help add some more definition to the shapes of the beech leaves. This would help give more of a hint of the leaves. Here is a rework l where all I did is pull in both the left and right sides of the histogram on a levels adjustment layer, to add more contrast.
A great ICM image, Vanessa. I like the adjustments proposed by @Ed_McGuirk.
Thanks @paul_g_wiegman for looking and your inputs. I appreciate it as always.
Thanks @Mario_Cornacchione I’m glad you like it and noticed the hints of the branches and leaves. Much appreciated.
Thanks @Ed_McGuirk for looking and your feedback. Your slight adjustment does bring out the yellows more. Thanks for the rework.
Thanks @Ola_Jovall for looking. Glad you like it. Yeah, what @Ed_McGuirk makes it look a lot brighter.
Very nice, with enough hint of structure. @Ed_McGuirk has brought it up a notch. Our eyes long for a certain contrast even if the light didn’t have it. We adjust things with our vision that the camera doesn’t always catch.
Thanks @Diane_Miller for looking and your feedback. Yeah, I really like what @Ed_McGuirk did. I didn’t do anything to it because I was trying to at first but not liking it, so I hoped that by just posting it as it was I would get some suggestions, and I did!
A good starting strategy with any image (in a raw converter) is to adjust overall exposure then look at the histogram and see how it looks when you adjust the Blacks and Whites sliders to give a reasonable spread in the histogram. Then adjust the Shadows and Highlights sliders, and then maybe go back to tweak the previous sliders. Then consider things like Clarity and Saturation.
There will be a different approach with an image that started with high contrast vs. low, but the idea is the same, to set what the eye expects for a pleasing contrast and shadow and highlight detail.
@Diane_Miller - excellent advice, especially getting the black and white at the ends of the histogram. Then all the other adjustments, with clarity and sharpening the final steps. And, every image doesn’t need to be sharpened, nor additional clarity. Look at the soul of the image, and maybe you need less sharpening and clarity. There are also times to push the dehaze slider to the left for a softer look.
These are not rules, just guidelines. When you’re feeling like having some fun, move any of the sliders in any direction you want.
I’ve never heard a rule that isn’t just aching to be broken.
I was struck by the natural vignetting in the lower left and upper right; that seems to accentuate the sweep of the branch and its colors.
Thank you @Dick_Knudson , I think it’s just some of the darker areas in between the leaves going into bigger branches. But I’m glad it works. It was a very small area of leaves I had to work with and there was bright sky above so I was trying to keep that out of the picture.
