Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This spot—and even more specifically, this tree—has become a favorite of mine this winter. I’ve made several visits during or after snowstorms, and I’ve often found this Douglas-fir and the other trees nearby coated in snow. I made this image after an early spring storm last weekend.
Specific Feedback
Any feedback welcome.
Technical Details
24-70 mm lens shot at 49 mm, 1/200 sec, f/10, ISO 100. Converted to black and white and processed in Lightroom. Did some minor cropping and applied a couple masks to darken the sky/background a bit and another mask on the tree to try to draw it out and add a little contrast to it.
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John, how lucky you are to have such spectacular scenery within access. The lone tree and the sloping line that leads into the background make for a strong composition. The most extended branch of the tree points to the mountains in the distance. That is an added touch that certainly depends on your camera position. Very nice. I like what you did with the B & W conversion. Do you have Nik’s Silver Efex Pro? It is a flagship set of filters for B & W conversion. I’d like to see what it suggests as a presentation for this beautiful scene. There were several beautiful renditions. I was going to copy one for you, but I wanted to see if I could reproduce it in PS with layers. This is close to what I saw.
The subtle blue cast helps blend the values in the scene. Here is a screenshot of how I did it. I used a TK9 add color layer, but it could be done with a plain layer with a selected color in the Soft Light mode and decreased opacity.
Please understand what you did is wonderful. Take what I did with a big grain of salt.
Hi @Barbara_Djordjevic - Thanks so much for your detailed feedback and suggestions! To answer your question, no, I don’t have Silver Efex Pro. I don’t use Photoshop either, although it’s a goal of mine to learn how to use it at some point. That said, I like what you’ve done with your edits. I laughed a bit when I saw your version, as I had been playing around with the blue channel in Lightroom and had gotten something similar. It wasn’t quite the same, but it was an easy way to add a bit of that silvery look. I will experiment with that some more. Thanks again for your comments. I appreciate it.
John, this is a great picture, no matter what you do with it.
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