The twisty tree...

[Sime]

Was at Dads at Christmas and went for a walk up the mountains behind his place. Along the way there is this eerie twisty tree and the background was suitably eerie too... this is what I ended up with. What can I do to make it a little more moody?..

[clockdoc]

Hi,
Good eye! Great atmospheric shot. About the only thing I can suggest is to give it a little more base if you have it in the original and to position the tree a little more to the right gving it some space on the left. Right now there is that small "column" of space on the right that makes the area a little to open to my eye. Thanks for sharing your work with us.

[Sime]

Thanks Doc... will do Would you say have the trunk of the tree right over to the right or "rule of thirds" off to the right?.. Sime..


WOO HOO!... Senior Member... boy, I feel old.. I need a nice cup of tea and a lay down!...

[Teewinot]

Sime....eerily beautiful shot. I agree with clockdoc that moving the tree to the right will help. The tree somewhat appears to be "looking" to the left, so giving it somewhere to look will be effective.

I wonder if cloning out the power lines would be an improvement? I think they sort of distract me from the "story" of the shot as I see it....eerie nature. They really aren't too distracting to the eye though, so if they help tell the story you are trying to tell, then of course leave them in.

Congrats on becoming a Senior member....I'm almost ready to join you myself.

[clockdoc]

Hi,
My thought would be to try the "rule of thirds" as opposed to moving it too far. Just noticed Teewinot's comment regarding your Senior Member status. I add my congratulations as well!

[yurik]

It is an interesting shot, though I do agree with you that there could be some more "mood" or "atmosphere" in the shot.

I would suggest trying a couple of things..
The first is the simplest - adding a vignette. I found that adding a dark vignette to a picture really gives it some dark depth

second - lomo. Adding a lomo effect would give it a larger contrast that might give the shot a unique look

third - orton effect. I think softening the edges and giving the clouds a hazier feel might give the picture in generally a "foggy day" feel but I'm not too sure if it will work :x

All of these are just things that I would try when post-processing. Hopefully one of them will give you the feel you want!

[knickers71uk]

Sime I find that shot pretty cool already, i kinda wished for a stormy sky to go with its eerriness

[purplepixie]

Makes me want to pull the covers up to my chin lovely shot.
A liiittle bit more contrast possibly? Agree on shifting the tree slightly to the right for composition. Nice work.