Trevor Harvey
July 2021 - A Ray of light
Original
About the Image(s)
I thought there was an image in here somewhere. I loved the shape of the smaller tree so concentrated on it when processing.
I was using a Nikon d700 and a Nikon 28-300 zoom lens at 28mm, 400 iso, 1/640 exposure and f8.
For processing
In lightroom I cropped the image and then put the image into colour effects and used the detail extractor and the darken lighten centre, I then did a mono conversion in lightroom and used a radial filter to introduce the idea of light hitting the tree.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
5 comments posted
I must agree that the shape of the tortured tree is engaging. The image suffers a lot from the need to crop a 12MP image so severely. You might try the new AI Enhance feature in ACR and Lightroom to get a 48MP raw image as a starting point. You can then crop and save it after setting black and white points, as a new smaller file for further processing, if computer power is restricted.
Looks like the sharpening of the (entire) image resulted in a lot of grain in the sky. If you use Lightroom without Photoshop, then you might be able to avoid sharpening the sky in one of two ways.
1. Using LR Detail/Sharpening panel, sharpen to get the tree decently sharp, then holding the Ctl/Alt key down, move the Masking slider so that the sky is masked out of the sharpening.
2. Use a LR Brush with sharpening, clarity, and/or texture and then click Range Mask ON and use the eyedropper and slider boundaries to select the color of the tree.
or 3, you can go in with a negative Clarity brush and blur the noise out of the clouds.
If in Photoshop, especially if you have a Luminosity masking add-on available, you can sharpen a portion of the image.
I would leave the hills unsharpened, the better to convey their distance.
By the way, I think you also have an interesting panoramic opportunity with the large trees in a weather-conveyed conversation with the small tree.
Posted: 07/05/2021 12:43:40
Looks like the sharpening of the (entire) image resulted in a lot of grain in the sky. If you use Lightroom without Photoshop, then you might be able to avoid sharpening the sky in one of two ways.
1. Using LR Detail/Sharpening panel, sharpen to get the tree decently sharp, then holding the Ctl/Alt key down, move the Masking slider so that the sky is masked out of the sharpening.
2. Use a LR Brush with sharpening, clarity, and/or texture and then click Range Mask ON and use the eyedropper and slider boundaries to select the color of the tree.
or 3, you can go in with a negative Clarity brush and blur the noise out of the clouds.
If in Photoshop, especially if you have a Luminosity masking add-on available, you can sharpen a portion of the image.
I would leave the hills unsharpened, the better to convey their distance.
By the way, I think you also have an interesting panoramic opportunity with the large trees in a weather-conveyed conversation with the small tree.
Posted: 07/05/2021 12:43:40
Hi Tevor,
Thank you for sharing.
This is very challenging in conversion but I understand what you want to accomplish.
If your intention is to highlight the small tree with light hitting, your cropping was the right choice.
Second, this is a repetition but your handing of tones is very good especially the clouds. I would never be successful as this myself before.
On the other hand, this month I personally think that texture is too strong/tight for my eye.
One question: where did you focus? The sharpness is a bit loose in my eye entirely.
For my practice, I played around with this.
A bit exaggerated version. It turned out to be unnatural but your version looks more natural. My version, there is no shade of tree along with the light hitting, so it does not work. But I always dream to capture this type of shots in the field. Maybe soon...
Anyway, thank you for providing me an opportunity to learn.
Posted: 07/05/2021 20:58:58
Thank you for sharing.
This is very challenging in conversion but I understand what you want to accomplish.
If your intention is to highlight the small tree with light hitting, your cropping was the right choice.
Second, this is a repetition but your handing of tones is very good especially the clouds. I would never be successful as this myself before.
On the other hand, this month I personally think that texture is too strong/tight for my eye.
One question: where did you focus? The sharpness is a bit loose in my eye entirely.
For my practice, I played around with this.
A bit exaggerated version. It turned out to be unnatural but your version looks more natural. My version, there is no shade of tree along with the light hitting, so it does not work. But I always dream to capture this type of shots in the field. Maybe soon...
Anyway, thank you for providing me an opportunity to learn.
Posted: 07/05/2021 20:58:58
(Group 36)
I agree with your thinking, Trevor, that there was an image in there. I also agree that the composition of the cropped image is better than the original. However, you have tried the impossible. The quality of such a hard cropping will never be good. I liked the tree and the surroundings, so if you have the chance to go back and reshoot the picture at the right distance, I think it can be a great picture. Posted: 07/10/2021 00:12:56
Impressive nature shot and you could continue to love small tree by keeping big ones uncropped:) I agree with Dick about grains and lost panoramic opportunity ie I'm voting for uncropped version. And contrast looks a bit high. I like nature photos in color as grey tones do not reflect the innocent beauty of green. Could you also advise us on uncommon exif data? Thanks for your sharing Trevor. Posted: 07/10/2021 03:20:41
Arne's comment made me think of this: "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." Robert Capa.
I, too, think the crop is better. Posted: 07/20/2021 10:16:52
I, too, think the crop is better. Posted: 07/20/2021 10:16:52