Crop and Processing Suggestions Please

[Cheezman]

Here is the original and the cropped and processed result. The point of the photo was the reflection of the trees, which were a long way off and nearly out of reach of my 18-135. The processing I know may be a bit overdone on the color, but I am interested in thoughts on that. But what about the crop? Should I have included more of the slope above the water, possibly to the sky? Also, do the swans provide an adequate focal point for the eye? Any other suggestions? Thanks for listening!

1/100 sec at f6.3
ISO 200

If I did it again, I'd boost the ISO so to stop it down a bit.

[HillHavenStudio]

I honestly like the cropping in the original better. In the after picture I feel much more drawn to the trees and bushes in the foreground. I do like the color though, very vivid, maybe a little overdone, but I still ike it. I also like seeing a little more of the trees. Cool idea though, I love reflections.

[AnonymousKiwi1]

The swans are good. I feel that we need to look up a bit. Maybe loose the section of grass at the very bottom of the picture, shift the crop upwards so the the far shore line is on the upper 'thirds' line. I like the vivid colour treatment too. Good luck.

PS - post your results back here. I'd have a play with it myself, but I'm at work - shhh!

[sedetweiler]

I think it if you color correct the image first you would get a better result. You have a very blue tint to the image, which isn't bad, it just ads to the problem when you push up the saturation. If you correct that first and then push it, you might like it better. Also, you should push up the black-point a bit to remove a bit of the haze. If this was me, I think I would even go do far as to replace the blue channel with the green on an luminosity layer to help add contrast to the trees in the distance.

[LeeR]

As is my custom, I took your image and ran it through PS to see what I would get. One of the things I like most about this image is the light on the trees in the distance that forms a gentle arc from right to left with another just above it. I worked at making the most of this without losing the beautiful colors in the foreground. The swans, I'm afraid, are a non-factor. They are so tiny in the image and I am almost tempted to clone them out as a distraction. As for the rest of the image, it is as if the two big arcs I mentioned along with the trees along the shore are on-stage while the trees in the foreground are part of the audience. Do you get that feeling? Overall the elements work together to give the image a rhythmic quality that is rare in photography. I'd keep working on this if I were you. I think with a bit more effort you could have something you are really proud of.

[Cheezman]

Wow, thanks for the comments and ideas, particularly from LeeR and sedetweiler. I use both LR and PSE 5 and am not sure I can isolate and eliminate the color channels as suggested by sedetweiler with these programs, at least not with combining a luminosity blend. I will noodle and see if I can find a work-around. I appreciate, LeeR, the very gracious encouragement you offer. I'll eventually post a version that tries to work in your creative ideas.

[Cheezman]

Here's a revision incorporating both sedetweiler's (started over, desaturated blue channel; this worked well) and LeeR's (including the arc of light above; so right; don't know how I missed this earlier, thank you) suggestions. I cloned out the swans also (rather roughly, but you'd have to blow it up large to notice, although you can still see their wake). LeeR, you're right on I think with the audience/performance impression. I'm interested in your impressions and have a specific question on the arc of light. I very slightly increased the exposure there and also boosted slightly the orange in LR to highlight the highlight. On a print, it looks slightly much. On the screen, well, what do you think? I do think it needed to come up a bit. Anyway, this was fun and instructive. Thank you again.

[LeeR]

Maybe just a tad oversaturated, but looking much, much better.