Saw this Lone tree in early morning low on the horizon gold light. I wanted to convey in Nature life finds a way to survive, even a tree growing in a crack of bedrock. The dead limbs on the right distract my eye, but I love the position of the subject with them in the pic.
Nice shot, Ken. The light on the tree is lovely. I think the dead limbs are distracting and take the image out of balance. Perhaps a crop?
Nice little composition. I would rotate it a little CCW even if it is technically correct. Also, I’d try to recover some detail in those rock highlights.
Gorgeous light Ken and very well edited. I think I would crop some off the right side to get rid of the twigs. Also it appears the background is slightly out of focus?
I agree with your statement. Without the twigs the comp becomes too simple. Tough compromise,
Ken,
I like what you have and even the potential for possible alternates. I find the mess of branches on the right a distraction and I don’t think adds anything to the story you’re trying to convey. They may help frame the lone tree, but I don’t think make the image stronger. Cropping however does change the impression one gets - and for me, that would be how there seems to be a relationship between the towering foreground tree (ponderosa?) and the lone tree. It’s not so much the highlighted tree is growing in a crack in the rock, but that it’s isolated from all its buddies. Not sure if that makes sense?
The early morning light is beautiful. In terms of processing, that light created some pretty good contrast. To me, the forest up top looks fairly blue. I tried to reduce that and the contrast using Darks4 Luminosity mask (TK panel v4) then setting the black point and then selectively painting in the center of the frame to reduce the effect of the adjustment. Also reduced the blue saturation globally.
Is it me, or does this look like a graduated ND filter was used as it seems darker across the top. both the top of the large tree on the left, and the tops of the branches on the right are considerably darker.
Oh, I also cloned out the bit of branch tip on the left edge near midline.
Anyway, here’s an attempt. Not sure if this is an improvement or simply a different alternative with a different message now.
