Photographing forests is one of my favorite activities. Add in a nice landscape scene, even better. The tricky part… dynamic range at sunset/sunrise loses colors and textures of trees but during more brightly lit times of days… shadows.
Open to whatever,
Is this a composite: No
Really nice job with the composition on this one.I think your processing has done a great job of handling exposure, contrast and dynamic range here, everything feels well balanced and looks very natural. It’s a matter of personal taste, but my only suggested tweak would be to slightly reduce the saturation of the middle ponderosa of the three on the right. This tree has a lot of visual weight, and I think slightly reducing saturation (and/or luminosity) might make it easier for the viewer to look down the center towards the distant mountain and clouds.
I will have to echo everything that @Ed_McGuirk mentioned about this lovely scene, Michael. My only suggestion would be to take it a step farther and reduce the saturation in all three trees on the right side as the color just looks a little neon to me. Just my opinion of course because I wasn’t there. The rest of the scene looks spot on and I also like the way the trees on both sides funnel the eye into the scene. Nicely done.
