Last week some dense fog settled in my local park. I had previously scouted out this tree and taken several test shots in different conditions but felt that there were too many distracting elements around it. Fortunately it didn’t take too long for the fog to come by and help isolate the tree.
Specific Feedback Requested
I pushed the color temperature down a bit from my camera’s auto setting to give the sky/fog a subtle blue cast. Too much, too little, just right? Also, the lower left branches cross the grass line. Unfortunately I did not notice that in the field. Does this bother you?
The blue tones work well for me. For my taste, you could raise the luminance of the blue tones a bit. So that you draw the viewer more towards the tree.
The branch doesn’t bother me that much, but to make the tree stand out more it would have been better to go down a bit further with the camera. This would get the trunk and the grass mound nicely aligned and could get even more calmness into the composition. I also think that a light crop down from the top left corner would help the tree come more to the fore. I like this depiction very much.
Wonderful find, well photographed and presented! WB is great for me – I think the coolness helps with a more monochrome look. The branch touching the vegetation doesn’t bother me as it stands out clearly enough. Whatever those tall plants are, they have been the bane of several of my attempted compositions. Some of them are taller than me.
This looks good, Dean. The blue works fine, but I would also be curious to compare it to a B&W presentation. If you were to print this and want to take the time, I would do some cloning around the left branch in question to make it stand out a bit more against the fog. Not a big deal, but I think one of those little things that can raise an image up a notch. Good stuff with this one.
I think there might be a more emotional connection for me if this were in black and white however I do love the muted, cool tones you’ve chosen for this image. I see lots of ghosts behind this tree particularly on the right side so I think your title is well chosen. I agree with @Martin9 about getting lower in the field with the camera so that the branch doesn’t touch the ground elements in the scene. Easy to overlook stuff like that when out shooting. I can’t tell you how many times I get home and look at an image and say to myself, "how did I miss that? "
This tree is well scouted out and you saw the potential in less than ideal light…enough so that you came back when the light was what you wanted to make the tree stand out.
