Branching Out

I've looked at these trees over Elowah many, many times. I was never thrilled enough with the images I took to keep them, but this is quite nice. Very delicate. I think the contrast works well.

Thanks for the feedback Marc. I love that you knew exactly where I took this right away, goes to show your knowledge of the Gorge!

WOW. This is top notch work Justin. So delicate and subtle - works beautifully. I love the contrast as is. The only suggestion I can offer is that I might crop 2-4% off the right side to remove the dark spot in the URC and to remove the extraneous limb coming in on the right, near the bottom. You could clone them as well, but I think a crop would help balance the shot a little better. Excellent work!!!

I really liked the thumbnail and larger image...

I like the softer contrast but might give it a hint more saturation.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I took some off the right and upped the saturation for the repost.

Both the original and repost work well for me. I noticed that little dark triangle in the upper RHC before reading Bill's comment and was going to suggest a slight crop off the top, but a crop from the right works well too.

Personally, I'd be interested to see this with a bit more contrast, particularly in the bottom 1/3 or so, and even more saturation for the sake of comparison. It all looks very good as-is but it doesn't have the same vibrancy as so much of your other work.

Justin,

I've come back to this a number of times and I'm honestly undecided about the contrast. I'm not sure this was effect you were after from capture, or just something that came along in processing. But for whatever reason, my very first impression is an image that's just not processed for nice contrast. I understand of course that that is simply a reaction to what most consider normal or within "the box." So to step out of the box I have to give you kudos for stepping out of that expectation.

In the end though, it doesn't quite look like a mist atmosphere, so I keep going back to processing. In fact an impression I'm getting now is, a lithograph; take the processing a little further and you'd get there.

I love the scene and am very fond of trees and intimate captures like this so that does weigh nicely for me. I too like the narrower crop, but the original is fine too.

I'm inclined to think along the lines of Phil's comment. Perhaps even bringing back a shade of contrast, but not so much you lose this effect would bring me back.

Lon

I like the repost Justin. I like the delicate details and color.

Here's a version with more contrast

Thanks for the continued input!

Justin,

Excellent. I thought that might do the trick for me. A subtle change, but I think world of difference. Thanks for taking the time.

Lon

Thank you Lon! I've definitely missed your critiques, thrilled to see you back on the forum!

Yeah, that's nice. Very clean and crisp. I'm for the contrast increase too.

Chris

The repost works much, much better. I like how the trees seem to blend into the walls. I've noticed you really hit your images with some super fine web sharpening, usually it looks good, sometimes a little over the top. Whenever I try that for high detail scenes it seems to wreak havoc on my overall contrasts. I wonder, perhaps this would work better (here on the web) if you held back on that web sharpening a little?

The thumbnail doesn't do this one justice.
Part of me wants a slight crop off the bottom, but
none-the-less, you were surely adroit in framing this masterpiece!

i love the trees and the contrast. what i would like to see are these in different conditions such that there is a good degree of separation between them and the cliffs behind (find a foggy day!).

Floris - thanks for the observation, here's a version with less sharpening. Let me know if this is more along the lines of what you're thinking...

I like the repost that followed Lon's comment. Just about what I was thinking. Very nice work!

Count me in for the version with more contrast, right after Lon's input. Excellent trunk lines against the greens and wall. Very nicely done!!

I second what Marc said... At first when I looked at this, I wanted more contrast...but think you chose the best level to display the spring starts.