I have done very little editing with this, only adjustments in Lightroom, nothing in PS yet. Before I went too far with it, I wanted to get peoples thoughts on the composition.
Things I like, the curve in the tree, the different colors of green and purple.
Things that concern me, the tree curving in the “wrong” direction, the lone red being on the outside vs the inside of the frame. My fear is the eye will follow the curve of the tree to the red leaves and just skip right out of the frame and miss the whole right side. My initial composition was a bit tighter, but I zoomed out a touch to add in the red stems of the bush to pair with the red leaves next to the tree.
Typing out out had me thinking flipping it could help.
Nicely seen, David. I agree with you about your concerns with pulling the viewers eyes to the red/purple leaves. Also agree with your second post. It does seem to work better at drawing my eyes to the red/purple leaves. What about toning down the bright yellow/green leaves in the mid ground? Just a thought.
Beautiful capture, David. IMHO, your original image is best. On the flipped image, I feel like I’m being hit in the face with a bunch of leaves, whereas in the original my eyes are drawn to the red leaves and then are allowed to roam freely to explore the rest of the image. I guess that leaves no doubt to where my eyes go automatically upon viewing an image - straight to the mid to upper left.
In my opinion the composition and light calls for the main point of focus to be on the bright group of leaves. I would not saturate the red or brighten it to make the viewer look at it because it goes against the design of the image.
Thank you @linda_mellor, I can look at the yellow leaves when I take a crack at editing it. My only concern is that I want somewhere for the eye to rest in the center of the frame and if I move those too close to the other leaves and they don’t stand out, I’m afraid they will be skipped over.
Thank you @Bill_Chambers that is interesting for sure, and it means, for you at least, the curve of the tree leads you back INTO the image, not out of it. Now you have me thinking…
@Igor_Doncov I agree with you, pushing the red leaves any further would detract from the rest of the scene and as I process it I will probably try to bring the visual weight of the yellow/green leaves more in line with that of the red leaves (probably by toning the red leaves down a bit). Interested if the original or flipped version left a stronger impression. Bill’s point is an interesting one.
I think Flipped vs. Unflipped depends on where you want to lead the viewers eye. I generally look at an image left to right. In the original Unflipped version I see the tree pointing down to the bright yellow/green leaves, which is clearly the element with the most visual weight. So from that perspective it works. Then my eyes wander to the subtle purples in the LRC. If anything I would de-saturate the red leaves in the ULC, to place more emphasis on the center and lower right.
If I look at it flipped the tree flows left to right, pointing at the red leaf. But the center yellow green leaves are so dominant visually, that I’m not sure flipped works.
