Alternate Shot (see below for some of the comentary):
I am always envious of other peoples fall images. I feel like while it is the season I like the most, it is the hardest for me to photograph. Trees present so many challenges for me and I haven’t been able to wrangle them quite yet. This is probably a step forward but still not there yet.
Open to anything and everything…trying to figure this out!
Is this a composite: No
I think you’re quite right - you are moving in the right direction. Others may have opinions about contrast, vibrance/saturation and so on. But this would be the first thing I’d try. I’m not a big fan of the 2:3 aspect ratio in portrait mode, especially for landscapes. Not a rule, of course. But in the case of this image, I think cropping from the bottom would make a huge difference. I’d suggest trying a pretty radical crop to 4:5. When I do a scroll crop , this image really becomes amazing, probably more what you’re looking for. It has great textures, subdued colours, and, what for me is the best and strongest part of the image - the beautiful fractal bifurcation as my eye moves up the picture. In my opinion, you don’t need all that stuff on the bottom, not only does it not add but it distracts and from the essence of the image and why, I’m guessing you took the picture in the first place. Another thing I’d do would be to remove the colour cast in the birch branches (mostly blue/magenta, I think) so that they stand out a little more dramatically from the background colours.
I agree with Kerry about cropping from the bottom. However, I would go with a square aspect ratio of the entire top and go for a fractal composition. As things stand now the tree feels cramped. But if it’s all branches then it becomes more of a pattern and less of a tree. The issue you have now is the eye goes down all those trunks and right out the frame. That’s because they’ve been cut off.
Shooting fall scenes has the same difficulties as all forest shots. However, it’s made easier with fog in some parts of the country. You have to be really comfortable with compositions before shooting general patterns in a chaotic environment. It’s an environment that’s difficult for everyone really. Many try to find individual subjects with this mass of limbs and branches and get frustrated. Most resort to taking broad distant shots of trees where there is a pattern. There is no negative space in a forest scene. Yeah, it’s challenging. Like all photography it helps to spend a lot of time with the subject. We spend most of our lives in ordered worlds and when faced with chaos we’re lost. But if you, say, camped in the woods for a week I bet the compositions would come. Dealing with the subject on a close personal basis always helps me.
This is very well done Dave. Love those white and black trees ( aspen I assume ) with fall colored background. And the trunks are sharp as they should be
Parsonally I would have included the base of the tree trunks to give the image a better balance
I actually like this a lot Dave but Like the other have mentioned I think it would take on a different look and feel with a crop. I think there is too much going on creating a bit of chaos in this image and so I cropped the top off and stuck to the bottom of the image:
Here is an alternative, I liked both of them for different reasons. I think this one tells the “story” of the place better, the other highlights the stark white trunks more. This one only has some raw edits…looking back the original was too bright.
@Kerry_Gordon and @Igor_Doncov I think you are headed in the right direction with the crop. I think If I could find something that pulled a touch away from the top while removing the green at the bottom that would be ideal. I will play with that.
Agreed, I need to pull that down some.
Besides background clutter, this is my struggle. Where to cut off a tree.
@Karl_Zuzarte Thank you! I think…if I’m remembering correctly, my idea was to minimize or remove the green at the bottom all together, which is why I left no base of the trees. There was probably some scrubby distracting clutter as well.
@David_Haynes Thanks for the idea on a crop. I have added another image, interested to hear your thoughts if you have any on the other version. I Have been really pushing images brighter, I think I’m reaching a point where I’m realizing I’m pushing it too much. I often want less deep shadows but it seems to be coming at the cost of pushing the whole image too bright.
I agree, a lot of people get seduced by the strong, warm colors of autumn, and then realize color only takes you so far. For a really good image you still have to have a compelling composition, and feel comfortable composing in the chaos of the forest environment.
A lot of folks here at NPN prefer 5:7 or 4:5 over 3:2 for vertical images of trees. I think part of it is that the middle and tops of trees often contain more interesting patterns than their bases at the bottom. For the vertical image I think Kerry’s suggestion of 4:5 would work well, and place more emphasis on the pattern. I also agree with @Igor_Doncov that as presented the bottom of the trees pull the viewer’s eye out of the frame.
You also run into the question of whether to include the ground or not (as Karl mentioned). This gives you a base that prevents the trunks from leading you out of the frame, but as you noted it can also present it’s own problems with clutter, etc.
Another way to avoid the “trunks leading the eye out” problem, is to use vegetation in the understory or the leaves of the tree itself to “hide” the bottom of the trunks. Here are a couple examples of using those techniques. These are not necessarily super strong images, but they illustrate an approach that can sometimes work. Look for this stuff in the field and try to use it to your advantage when you can.
Using the leaves of the tree itself
Using understory vegetation
David,
You have gotten some wonderful and worthwhile suggestions for this lovely autumn scene. I know the feeling as all that lush color can be like a sensory overload at times. Since you do not have any more at the bottom I am thinking a bit of a crop from the bottom as well as the right and left sides would place more of an emphasis on the birch trunks as well as the BG autumn color. Here is a repost with what I was thinking. Did you happen to capture any images of just that amazing color on the left of the birches as I think that would work also.
Thanks for responding @Ed_McGuirk what you stated above is exactly why I chose the trees as more of the “subject” and the color as a supporting cast. I was probably 200 yards away without much ability to get closer so I used a long lens and hoped to isolate them to a certain extent. I have heard that about 3:2 in a number of places, I think it is image dependent, sometimes you have enough to fill it, in this case probably not and I will end up cropping it to a 5:7 or 4:5. Pulling the image away from the bottom will make it look likes like I accidentally cut of the bottom of the trees (which I didn’t, it was just messy so I excluded it). I see what you are saying with your two images, they aren’t complete lines, they don’t progress cleanly through the entire image so the eye gets caught up in other things and continues to explore instead of looking straight up and down. Makes sense.
@Ed_Lowe I don’t have any of JUST the color on the left. The idea in the horizontal image was to play the barren trees against the warm color on the left. Maybe the idea was there but the execution was a miss…not sure. I like your idea of just the center portion of the trunks, avoid the chaos at the top and bottom. Ideally, my path would have taken me a bit more to the left and I could of avoided some of the overlaps but unfortunately that wasn’t an option and it becomes more apparent in the crop in my opinion.
