Thorro Jones  


Lonesome trees by Thorro Jones

September 2020 - Lonesome trees

September 2020 - Thorro Jones

Original

About the Image(s)

Lonesome Trees
Image data: Nikon D5300 with NIKKOR 18-140 lens at 140mm; 1/600 sec at f6.3, ISO 200, no filters, no tripod.
This image was taken February 4, 2020 in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park. The picture was taken on a Winter Couples Adventure with some friends. I used Lightroom “Auto” to adjust the Tone along with changing the Sharpening amount to 50% and the masking to 70%. In this image I wanted to capture the look of isolation of the three dormant trees compared to the vibrant evergreen trees in the background.
Any suggestions to improve this picture or general tips on shooting snowscapes that work for you are appreciated.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
13 comments posted




Jim Horn   Jim Horn
(Groups 5 & 15)
Thorro, you have a great photo. I think there are some details in the snow that can be brought out without losing your look of isolation that you wanted in the three dormant trees.
I opened your finished photo in Photoshop and used Camera Raw Filter. I increased the texture, dehazing and contrast to bring out details in the snow. Let me know what you think about these changes. Jim   Posted: 09/03/2020 16:04:35
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Jim I liked how you brought out the details in snow. What texture, dehazing and contrast settings did you use? I have not used these tools before. I have so much to learn. Keep the suggestions coming.   Posted: 09/03/2020 16:26:12
Jim Horn   Jim Horn
(Groups 5 & 15)
Thorro, in Photoshop go to Filter, from that menu select Camera Raw Filter. When that opens, a long list of sliders appears from large changes to subtle changes at the bottom.
The list goes from temperature, exposure, tint etc and gets to highlights, shadows, white, black, contrast. At the lower sliders you will see texture, dehaze (more or less foggy) vibrance and saturation.
NOTE: there is an "Auto" and a "Default" it starts in default which means all sliders are in zero. Click on Auto and the algorithms will make suggested changes. Auto is usually a good improvement. Good Luck. Jim   Posted: 09/03/2020 18:32:24



 
Thorro, what a serene and quiet photo.
A curiosity question. My eyes seem to fix on the empty space to the left of the dead trees and where the live trees join. Anyone else get that?   Posted: 09/07/2020 10:46:50
Jim Horn   Jim Horn
(Groups 5 & 15)
Steve, yes. It is natural for your eyes to be drawn to all bright spots/spaces. Jim   Posted: 09/07/2020 11:32:22
 
Steve I never noticed this before but you are right. Okay, that is not where I want the viewer to focus on. Any suggestions on changing the pictures to emphasis the three lonely trees in the picture? Bringing out the details as Jim suggested earlier seems to help to de-emphasis the snow.   Posted: 09/07/2020 15:47:32
 
Unless you can go back to that spot, walk another 20m to the right, and then take the photograph again, I don't have any good ideas.
The reason I asked the question to everyone was to see if anyone else saw how the branches on the left side of the dead trees move the point of focus towards that spot. Or am I the only one? So much of the image is vertical. Nice strong, but not imposing, horizontal band from the slope, some nice tree shadows. The dead trees are very vertical except for those two branches. Honestly, this is something I know I wouldn't see at the time if I was taking this photograph.   Posted: 09/12/2020 03:08:05



Laura Lee Bartholomew   Laura Lee Bartholomew
I agree with Jim and the others about bringing the detail out of the snow.

I want to suggest something different for this image. Since it is already almost monochromatic as shot, why not explore what this image might look like in black and white.   Posted: 09/09/2020 19:46:33
 
Laura thanks for the suggestion. I actually did this with some of the other photos I took on this shoot. Here the updated B&W photo. I thinks it works well for this scene as it emphasizes the lines and forms in the photo.   Posted: 09/10/2020 07:54:48
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Laura Lee Bartholomew   Laura Lee Bartholomew
I think you are on the right track here. With monochrome images, I personally like a lot of contrast.

I don't know if you have NIK filters which are now DXO filters if you didn't have them a year or two ago.

If you do have NIK or DXO, try using the Silver Effects module. You can try many variations of B&W.   Posted: 09/16/2020 17:26:34



 
It is hard to capture details of snow in photos - but you have managed to do it here. Jim has managed to improve the details further more.

I think a slight vignette in this photo also could help focusing more on the trees in the foreground.   Posted: 09/11/2020 03:51:43



 
Thoro,

This is a very nice scene. In color the image seems to have a blue tone to it. That is natural where there is a high degree of open sky illumination. However, I find it somewhat disconcerting and try to neutralize it in post proc when it shows up in my images. I really like Laura's suggestion of going to BW. Your attempt makes the tree tops of your primary subject separate better than in the color version. I would take it a step further and crop to give your main subject more real estate. I would also up the contrast quite a bit. It will enhance the snow and make the main trees pop more. If the forest goes too dark for you we could always bring them back a bit. For my BW I want rich deep blacks and top end white with every tone in between if possible.
Tab   Posted: 09/11/2020 19:59:15



 
This is a quick edit of my comments above. It has a lot of artifacts and doesn't look that great, but that is because we are starting with a small JPEG. If you start with a good size raw file I am sure you can come up with a satisfactory result.

Tab

  Posted: 09/11/2020 20:24:03
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