REWORK based on comments
ORIGINAL
I visited the Söderåsen National Park a few weeks ago, it is an 2 hour drive from home. I found this colorful tree against a rock wall. The tree is photographed from a distance since placed on top of a steep rock gravel slope.
Any comments are welcome!
1/2, f/13, ISO 200, Olympus 40-150 2.8 lens @ 70 mm (140 mm equiv.), Olympus OM-D E-M1X camera on tripod
What a magnificent old fellow you found here! A beautiful image Ola, I love it.
If I would comment on anything, it would be the piece of grey sky in the top right corner. I might be tempted to crop just below that to an almost square image (although with bleeding heart, because you lose so much of the beautiful tree).
Great image.
Ola, in your image there are much possibilities . First the crop as Han suggested . But also a smaller crop gives a totally different image and feel. It’a beauty !!
What a magnificent find, Ola. I love old gnarly, meandering trees like this. Well done. I can see @Han_Schutten’s crop, but also think that makes it an entirely different image. Nothing wrong with that. Both are fantastic in my view.
The strong convolutions of this tree’s trunk hold this view together very well, Ola. I like the bit of ground that you’ve included at the bottom. It’s an amazing tree with very colorful leaves. Your full frame view shows off the shape of the trunk well, while a crop focuses attention more on the leaves.
What a wonderful old tree this is. I love the leaf colors, the powerful trunk, and the strong limbs she bares. I have learned from posting my images on NPN for critiques that viewers sometimes see photos very differently than what I saw when I took the shot. I’m also learning how important the crop is in displaying your intent for the viewer. This photo is a prime example of how this crop tells the story of what is important to you, but there are many good crops in this image. I use to get very confused when viewers suggested several crops. It made me feel my photo wasn’t good. Now I see it as a complement. I now feel that my viewers are interested enough to take time to tell me what they see in this photo. If I was making my living off of prints, I think I would make prints of several different crops that customer could choose from. I’d crop it or not crop it deciding on what drew you to take this photo. Nice image no matter how it’s cropped.
Crop and clone baby, crop and clone!
This is really quite nice.
I am not sure if this works better or not but the upper right area is a “slight” distraction if you were to get picky. Try a crop? Might work, might not.
LOL I didn’t see Eric’s comment before doing this. Too funny.
@Ben_van_der_Sande, @Donna_Callais, @David_Bostock, @Eric_Bennett @Mark_Seaver, @Matt_Payne and @Han_Schutten thanks for your kind comments and advice.
There is no doubt that a crop/clone action is the way forward. I will post a rework when finalized.
Eric and Matt actually took the words right out of my mouth, well, maybe not exactly with the “crop and clone baby crop and clone” but the idea is the same. Great work!
Based on advice, I have presented a rework at the top: I liked the grandeur of the tree and tried to crop as little as possible, and then cloned the remaining sky.
Woah, nice rework, Ola. The filled in sides works really nicely to keep us exploring the branches and leaves. I could see lifting the mid-tones just a little and maybe use the HSL panel or color masks to tease apart the various shades in the canopy. Brilliant tree that I hope you revisit in other seasons when possible!
Hi Ola! I love that tree. It really photographs well. I’m going to be slightly contrarian and say I like the gray in the upper right because I think it balances with the bit of gray in the middle lower right.
What an amazing structure that tree bares. And the fall colors really add impact to the structure. I’m cracking up at @Eric_Bennett’s comment…Crop and clone baby, crop and clone. That gave me a good laugh. I agree. That URC just pulls too much of my eye away from the magnificence of the tree structure and the colors. The rework is sensational. I also like @Matt_Payne’s crop too. Both work well for me.
@David_Haynes, @Kris_Smith and @Cameron_Wilcox thanks for your kind comments.
I will try this, I am often afraid to do to much to get the image to pop in an unnatural way.
In the original image I changed the bluer sky to gray to match the color of the rock wall.
I like it that you cloned and didn’t crop. Although I was the first who suggested a crop, I think that the original post and a crop are about 2 different goals: do you want to present a portrait of this magnificent old tree, or do you want to present a pleasing image, based on more or lesss “common” standards. Cropping to achieve the latter would sacrifice a large part of the tree.
I think your rework is the best of boths worlds.
Thanks @Han_Schutten. Glad you liked the rework. I had the same thinking as you state above, to try to present the grandeur of this tree.
