Thank you @Egídio@Kris_Smith@Diane_Miller for your comments and sugestions.
The rework has a decrease in highlights, clarity and contrast in BG . I do like this version. Also Diane, I cropped more aggressively for the abstract and love this. Think I’ll post it in abstract section,great suggestion.
Mario, I can see how this tree attracted you to capture this image. The amount of lichen is quite noticeable. I like the image and its colors. However, the homogenous light distribution is somewhat distracting. If I had edited the image, I would have tried to apply some dodging and burning to create more depth in the overall scene and, especially, darken the highlights in the BG. That could create more depth between the tree and the BG. I would also suggest a different crop to center the tree and eliminate the extra space on the right side. It creates unbalance as is, especially with the light yellow trees there competing for attention.
This is a nice image. Were there other trees with that much lichen? I wonder if it’s just more exposed to the elements by itself.
Seriously fall. Wow. I love the sweep of the trees and the way the ferns at the base are like set dressing in the way they set them off. As a lichen lover this is a treat. All those lovely green shields and other mosses mixed in. Nice counterpoint to the gold and red. Nicely off center, too.
It would be interesting to see how this would look with the background taken down a bit in terms of clarity and contrast. Since the lichen-y trees have so much of both, it could make for a way to present them more distinctly and add a calming effect.
Another way to address some of the tonality topics Egidio touched on would be to explore using the new Point Color tool in ACR and Lr. I’ve used the luminosity values to create some nice modeling and 3D contour without having to delve too far into luminosity masking. Could be worth the time.
Wonderful find, with excellent sharpness and detail in great light!! I agree the composition is wonderful and I love the ferns grounding the trees. The suggestions by @Egídio and @Kris_Smith are good, but my immediate response was to embrace the issues they raise and create a different image, not to replace this one but to have a two-fer: Crop from the bottom about 3/5 up and you have a pointillist painting with those wonderful color patterns in the leaves lurking behind the very interesting trunks! I think I would leave the bases of the mid-ground trunks for a subtle base, but maybe it is better to crop up to the base of the leaves for a more abstract image.
Mario,
Because this is so unusual, I love the abstract feel of the cropped version that @Diane_Miller came up with and I’d go a step further and remove more of the bottom for an even more abstract feel. Oh wait. I see that you already did that.
Nice job. The colors are amazing, the uniformity of the foreground tree trunks with the moss are so unique. What a great find.
