Early morning before sunrise at the San Luis NWR near Los Banos, CA. Typical winter-time fog with a lot of mist mixed in. Our first stop on the way into the Reserve, couldn’t pass up this tree; fog and mist swirling around, wetlands and marsh surrounding the tree, felt mysterious and eerie. This is how I remember the scene, the tree fading in and out of the fog/mist, soft almost pastel colors…my wife said it looks like a water color painting, I somewhat agree with her. Couple of questions: is the comp too weighted to the right? I cropped another image to square, and, of course, the tree is the main subject, it felt almost too, in-your-face. I like this full size image, love the tree and the soft/pastelish reeds and muted yellows and greens. What say you.
Such a beautifully shaped tree. I can see your attraction to it. Fog pictures always seem to be liked easily so when they are exceptional they are really something. This has a very artistic look to it in both tonality and color.
Suggestions? I would desaturate and dehaze the very bottom to match the far shore as an alternative. See how you like it. I personally like the cyanish green color in the water. Doesn’t look natural but is very appealing.
Nice picture. To answer your question, I don’t think cropping the image in order to place the tree in the middle would be as pleasing as what you have here. Leaving the tree on the right give the eye a place to wonder as opposed to “I’m a tree and here I am !” which is what would happen if the tree is in the middle. Have you tried de-saturating the colors just a bit on the ground? It would be interesting to see how that would look.
I live the tranquility of this image and yes, it looks like a pretty painting. Very nice.
Really enjoy this image. I love how the fog/mist isolates the wonderfully shaped tree. I think the negative space is a nice balance and wouldn’t change the crop.
This looks great, Reno. It has that mysterious moody feel and yes, it definitely has a fine painterly look. I would not crop it. I like it as is. The negative space on the left provides a nice tension and it looks balanced to my eye. Real nice work!
Wonderful! The Central Valley isn’t the easiest place to shoot due to rotten air quality and terrible smog/haze for much of the year. The fog was very much your friend, and you made great use of it.
I think this looks great as is, Reno. The fog has created a wonderful mood along with some nice pastels and I like the fact that you have the tree a bit off center as that negative space creates a little visual tension to the scene. Wonderful image.
Following up on Igor’s suggestion, the foreground clarity detracts from the mood/feel of the fogginess of most of the composition, but I don’t think you want to crop out the water and foreground grass. I would agree that you may want to use the Dehaze slider, but to ADD haze (fog), not remove it. After adding haze you may not need to desaturate. You might also want to play around with the overall brightness, depending upon what effect you want.
Love this! Excellent job taking advantage of the misty atmosphere. I love the subtle and subdued pastels around the pond. I think you made the right decision in giving the tree the amount of space you did.
This is quite painterly. Beautifully seen and captured.
This is a really beautiful scene and I love how you have captured and presented it in this picture. The soft soothing tones and colors really show off the Central Valley landscape. Very nice!
Beautiful, tranquil scene. The shape of the tree is wonderful. Maybe, a matter of taste, maybe I would cut just a bit the foreground, but it is also nice as is.
Ant
This is a great fog view, Rene. The shape of the tree is outstanding and the foreground colors add a nice warmth. I think the contrast between the tree softened by fog and the bright, sharpness of the foreground add good contrast to the view. I could also see how “fogging up” the foreground would make for a more mysterious image.
Thank you, all, for taking the time to view and comment on my image…much appreciated. @Igor_Doncov, @Noel_de_Christian, @Tony_Kuyper, @Rick_Alway, thank you for your suggestions…adding more canvas and desaturating the foreground. I did desaturate the fg in the posted image, I’ll try a little more. As I’m sure you all know, in foggy conditions, the further an object is from the camera position, the more it fades from view. Likewise, the closer an object is to the camera position the less the fog affects the fg. I added more canvas to the top in the printed version. Thanks again.
