This picture was taken on an afternoon walk after work. The place is the usual, and very unremarkable, patch of pineforest near my house. I have taken the same stroll countless times, and each time I say to myself that no matter what, there must be a picture to be taken. And sure enough, I noticed this tree being flooded by the last light of the day. I walked around it to figure out how best to be express what I was looking at, and finally decided to take a shot using adjacent trees as a frame. I didn’t expect much to be honest from this shot, but on post processing I started to like it, and hence I share here.
Specific Feedback Requested
I quite like the end result, but as always I would appreciate any hints or tips from fellow photographers here.
Technical Details
Fujifilm X-T4 + XF70-300 LM OIS WR at 159mm
f/5.6, ISO 160
1/17 sec
Take two: Second image based on fellow members’ critique.
Lowered the exposure on the two out of focus trees on left and right, by -2.5 EV.
I’d have been caught by this, too. Backlighting is so magical isn’t it? The OOF tree frame works well, although I’d be tempted to try cloning out the bright backlit bits on its edge. I find myself looking there to work out what it is. Not sure about the triangle slice further up. I’d also play with darkening (but not much) the plant in the LRC as well as the trunk just above it. A little bit would do I think.
To me this represents being in the woods very well. The way trees merge and overlap, but sometimes you find openings that light can pour into.
The quality of light and the detail here are unusual and hold my attention. It seems like a common scene that was blessed by some wonderful light! Normally I would be bothered by the OOF FG trunks, but not in this case – maybe because they frame the lovely details so well.
Hey Nikos! I second what David said. The framing is what really takes this photo to the next level. I would even suggest darkening the trees in the foreground more to bring even more attention to the tree that’s the main subject!
This image makes me instantly feel as though I am in a pine forest. Looking at this, I can feel the warmth of the sun, I can smell the wonderful scents of the pines – I don’t know if it’s like that everywhere but here in Western Canada the forests have a special wonderful smell especially on warm days when the sun shines and forest heats up. It’s awesome and it’s one of my favorite scents on earth!
On the technical side of things, as the others have already mentioned, the framing with the out of focus trees works really well and pulls the viewer right in to the image so well done!
Very nice use of backlighting here, Nikos. I agree wholeheartedly with @David_Johnston that the framing tress along the edges could greatly benefit from some burning as they are much lighter than the tree trunk in the middle of the frame but use a luminosity mask so that you don’t blow out the blacks. Also, the OOF plant in the LRC is a bit distracting and maybe about 50% of the top of it could probably be cloned out. I might also darken that backlit section between the two tree trunks in the URC so it’s not so noticeable. Glad that you finally found this one. Nice work.
PS I hope you don’t mind but I brought this into LR for a very quick and very dirty rework to show the ideas. This of course, may not be your intentions so take this with a grain of salt.
Wow, this is significantly darker than how it appears on my LR screen. Not sure what happened here. Anyway, you get the idea of darkening the edges but not this much. I would say this is at least a half stop darker than intended. Weird!
So, I think there’s consensus (Im also in agreement) that the image could benefit from darkening the framing trees. I’ll post the image alongside the original. I do prefer the second take, so thanks to everyone for the constructive critique… this is what this place is all about, appreciated !
