Inspired by Ed McGuirk’s article (thank you, Ed!) I upload this image, that I shot a few years ago in Extremadura, Spain.
It shows a recently “harvested” cork oak and the red trunk is a strong contrast to the spring colors in the BG. The grove was a bit overwhelming, I was impressed, so I’m curious to learn more objective opinions of this image. I have several more images of the spot, it was hard to select one.
Any feedback is welcome.
han
I like this image for the color and composition. If I have to give a comment as an amateur like you.
I should make the color of the tree infront a bit less obvious, by taking some of the red out. Now it’s asking all the attention .
I love the spring colors here, and agree with @Ben_van_der_Sande that the color is very dominant and strong. The deep rich coppery color contrasts very strongly and to my eye, while lifting the gentle greens a bit. To my eye, the color gives too much pull to the scene - away from the other structures creating a little imbalance. I also like to receding line of trees to the left in the image, but the tilt of the ground and other trees has me “falling right” in the frame. I think this is a successful image, but wonder what you think about these points? Perhaps I’m being too picky about the lines? Interested in your perspective.
@Ben_van_der_Sande and @Jim_McGovern: I understand your point with the strong color of the front tree. It is very obvious and it dominates the scene. For me, this is more or less the reason to make the image. While I often see images with contrast and saturation increased in post-processing (sometimes upto the pain limit), nature in this case created this strong color itself… The cork is harvested with a cycle of approx. 11 years. Only shortly after removing the bark, the color is that strong. I was lucky to be there at that moment. Maybe the image would be better balanced if I decreased the saturation of the tree, but I would have the feeling that I took away the essence of the scene.
@Jim_McGovern: I agree with your remark about the lines. The trees stand on a slope and I remember struggling with the angle of the camera on the tripod. The “growing direction” of the trees is a mess. The first tree behind the cork oak is more or less vertical, some trees grow neatly opposite to gravity (as they should 
), but others go with the slope or against it. Wind and light affected the direction too, it appears. I will have a look at the raw file, if there is any space left to play with different angles. I should have tried different angles when I was ther…
2 Likes
@Han_Schutten, it’s nice to see some spring images from Spain. I agree with you that the cork tree is the primary reason to make this image, while it is very dominant in color, that’s really what makes this shot interesting to me. I’ve never seen this type of tree, but from the restrained processing and saturation in the rest of the image, I’m certain that cork trees have this very bold color in real life. I think that you have a nice story about this red tree in the midst of all these yellow and greens. And I like that the trunk of the cork tree is so different than the others, it’s like the concept that a pattern shot is stronger with something to break up the pattern.
I agree with @Jim_McGovern that the right tilt is a little disconcerting. I would suggest trying a slight rotation, with Content Aware Fill to avoid too much of a crop. I would also suggest reducing the luminosity of the grass on the ground, it’s so bright that it pulls my eye away from all the nice stuff in the trees. And because red and green are complementary colors, I would suggest playing that up a bit more by using HSL to shift green more green, and slightly shift yellow more green.
If you don’t mind I took a stab at a re-work doing these things.
Han,
This is quite intriguing. I like the spring colors, including the red-brown of the main tree. If anything, you could darken the grasses a shade?
What’s intriguing and actually a mind bender - at least it keeps me engaged and looking around, is the whole slant and angle of things. To me, the ground is clearly sloped - but is this ground sloped like on a hill? Some trees are straight while others are leaning in different directions. The grasses and vegetation don’t help in the clues. I’m almost willing to bet the camera was level and the scene was on a slope? Makes for an interesting exercise just trying to figure it out.
Lon
@Ed_McGuirk: I like your version of the image. The color shift is appealing and the angles of the trees feel more comfortable.
@Lon_Overacker: Yes, the ground is sloped because it’s a hill. It is a low mountain range, I think the scene is at an altitude of about 3000ft. Normally, plants/trees grow towards the light and away from gravity. In seems, that in this scene other influences have forced the trees to grow in various angles.
Thanks Han for the response and explanation. Clears things up for me.