This was taken in late December 2013. Lake Martin, AKA Cypress Island Preserve, is actually a reservoir managed by Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, known for the large rookery, as well as being a popular place for fishing. It is often drawn down during the winter months to control unwanted vegetation and to reduce stagnant water brought on by the large population of birds in the rookery. The Cypress butts in this scene are around 2-3 feet below normal water levels. I’ll also be posting another shot during the drawdown soon.
E-5 Zuiko 50-200 @150 on tripod, ISO 100 1/5 f/14 -2/3EV
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Cool kind of abstract image. I would significantly boost the contrast and get some element separation. To my eye, it looks kind of flat and muddy and the green/grays all seem to blend together.
This is beautiful. I love the difference between the texture of the trees and their reflections - rough vs. smooth. I’m with Bill on increasing the contrast or somehow bringing out more of the fine elements and colors in the trees, for just a smidgen more pop.
For me, the image centers around the story of the water levels changing and the “butts”. The reflection is key and of course the spanish moss throughout. If it were mine, I would actually crop out at least half the top (if anything to remove any sky remnants), but more importantly focus in on the reflection and the colors of the cypress trunks. In doing so, I think you eliminate the need for any contrast adjustments. Even as presented, great job isolating this composition. Great potential here.
Bill I love the color pallette and textures of the moss, and the contrasting reddish color of the butts. Agree with Lon and Igor about cropping the top part of the image. The bright sky patches on the upper left need to be removed.
Thanks @Harley_Goldman, @Lon_Overacker, @Igor_Doncov and @Ed_McGuirk for giving your opinions on this. I’m the first to admit, and I’ve said it before, that minimizing fancy PS tricks is for me a challenge. This was taken during marginal filtered daylight conditions, so it’s rather flat. I could juice it up with lots contrast, and do all manner of other such tricks, but I personally favor a more purist approach.
As to the sky, and the framing, well that’s your opinion, but for me it’s minor. I would invite anyone to upload and show me how you would interpret this. If you do, please explain what you did.
Bill, the comments about the upper part of the image reflect 2 points, first eliminate the white patches of sky to reduce hot spots, and second a suggested crop to reduce the amount of space devoted to the upper part of the trees, thus placing more emphasis on the butts and reflection (and which also gets rid of the white sky spots).
After looking at this again, I change my mind and would retain your original composition, but clone away the white sky parts, eliminating the minor distraction they create. While the light was flat and low contrast, I think this could benefit from a small increase in mid-tone contrast. I downloaded the file, and cloned away the sky parts using content Aware Fill in Photoshop (could also be done via Lightroom clone tool). I then added a small amount of midtone contrast in PS, using a TK Midtones 2 Mask in conjunction with a Brightness Contrast Adjustment Layer, which restricts the contrast bump to the midtones. If you are not big on TK & PS, something similar could be done in Lightroom’s Tone Curve section by applying a gentle S shape adjustment to the curve. The changes I made are very subtle, but help a little bit.
Thanks for your input guys. @Ed_McGuirk, I am not familiar with content aware method you mention, only the standard clone in PS. Will have to check into that. @Igor_Doncov, for some reason I avoid the square format, but after seeing yours I’m liking how you cropped it, because the virtual horizon is in the middle, which divides the scene nicely between the water/reflections and the rest so that they bear equal weight. When cropping, I often consider how the subject matter fits the frame. I should reprogram my brain to start thinking in square format as an option.
Bill, Content Aware Fill is a powerful photoshop tool that is very much worth learning about. It can be more useful than the clone tool, or the healing brush. Essentially you make a selection of the area you want to remove, then go Edit / Fill / Content Aware Fill. PS then makes an intelligent attempt to clone the area away. Many times it works really well with no effort on your part. I always try it first before resorting to manual clone. I do use just the spot healing brush for simple things like dust spots in a sky. An internet search on it should return a lot of tutorials.
