It was foggy this morning, making nice light on one of my favorite trees. Pretty sure I’ve posted a similar shot before – and may again! Fog and leaf cover is never quite the same.
All comments welcome!
Only had time for a quick handheld shot as the fog was already clearing. No time to change lenses and fortunately didn’t need to. Almost no adjustments in LR and some subtle tonal work in PS.
Lovely capture, Diane. So reminds me of growing up in the Bay Area. I am curious about your ISO setting at 1000, was it windy? Just wondering. Nicely seen and captured.
Thanks, @linda_mellor – no wind at all, although I was concerned about having to handhold in my rush. But I don’t know how the setting got up there. I think I bumped the dial without meaning to and didn’t notice – after 2 years I still haven’t developed good muscle memory for that camera. I was mostly paying attention to moving around a bit to get the trees lined up.
Geez, Diane, I thought I was the only one who get excited and starts shooting with checking my settings! I didn’t notice any noise in the large view at all. Great photo and nicely done!
Yeah, @linda_mellor – it’s probably just us… 
I did denoise but there was very little and I doubt it would have showed at even the large size here. I have mostly learned to watch exposure now that I have a live histogram.
The arc formed by the trees give the composition structure while the branches in the tree to the upper left of center add a lot of interest.
I do wonder if a vertical comp of the left side of the image would be a stronger composition because it would place more interest on the tree to the upper left of center.
I’ve been playing with fog images like this myself, and finding that I have more questions than answers. Contrast is tough, because with too little the image is flat and with too much you lose the nice fog effect. How high or low key to make the image is challenging; there are a lot of ways to take it. Color is also difficult, because a little looks nice to my personal taste, but too much looks unnatural. How much of the flat fog (usually at the top), if any, to include is also part of the story.
In the end, I think there is a lot of room for personal choice. I think this image is very attractive, and I love oaks; I think they are my favorite trees when it comes to twisted trunks and branches. Back to personal choices though, I’d be tempted to make this a tad brighter and a tad tighter:
What a marvellous relationship you have with this tree. It is a lovely portrait. My only suggestion might be a slight crop to add a bit more to the intimacy?
Thanks, @Brian_Schrayer, @John_Williams and @Kerry_Gordon! Brian, I’d hate to lose the BG tree on the right. It’s subtle here but I think it’s a nice balance for the one on the left. I had to move as much as I could to the right to let this much of it show, but going farther would have meant levitating above a dropoff – which would really come in handy sometimes. John, I like your lightened version – I did go back and forth on brightness and contrast. Kerry, I had already cropped it a bit from both sides and it was feeling on the verge of being too crowded in the frame.
