We had a fresh snow last night, and this afternoon I went out in it, in a favorite natural area nearby. It was dark, and hazy, and mysterious. I enhanced the mystery with some adjustments in Lightroom, including making it less contrasty (the opposite of what I am usually inclined to do) and giving it a sepia cast.
Feedback Requests
This is more editing that I would normally do. Does it work? Does it make the image look interesting, or boring?
Pertinent Technical Details
Nikon D7500, 18-300 lens at 56 mm, ISO 900, f4, 1/125.
I do like your processing of this photo. While I don’t think its a turn of 20th century vibe, I do think its more like a faded photo that one might find in their family photo box that was lost for about 30 years, and once found brings back some very precious memories. If I was to change anything, I would clone out the branches in the URC and ULC.
Elizabeth, your treated version is much warmer with a gentle touch of mystery and invitation. I wonder if a bit more contrast in the leaning trees in the middle grounds would enhance the sense of depth without removing the mystery and warmth.
I like the processing a lot. The sepia tone lends that sense of a bygone era (maybe 40s or 50s) with a bit of fading as described above. I can see the rationale for a bluer tone, but to me, it’s the warm at odds with the cold that makes this work. Mark’s suggestion is with trying. And clone out the leaning trunks isn’t a bad idea though their presence adds to the photo album feel.
ML
Hi Elizabeth,
I’m not a huge fan of sepia, but the application here seems to work. i experimented with cropping the sky out, which took the URC & URL branches out & found it added focus into the path leading into the image. It would be fun to have the sepia version and cooler version to compare, ya?
I like your processing of this image, Elizabeth. The sepia works to add a bit of mystery to this image. The one thing I’d look at is the two sky corners on the top which tend to grab my attention. A slight crop would take care of them.
This is quite lovely, with a mysterious atmosphere!! You have options to play with the WB just a bit, and another to look at split-toning, with the whites cooler than the darks. The two upper corner areas could be dealt with by cloning or AI fill. I’d hate to lose anything with a crop. Excellent image!!
