Farmer's Tree against the Sky

[Yahvo]

I have been taking pictures since last Christmas, and realized today that if browsing DPS has helped me so much, then the next step must be to begin participating!

This tree is stretching it's branches on a friend's property just besides a pasture full of horses. A tiny nudge to the saturation slider followed by a quick levels adjustment helped emphasize what stood out to me.



Not entirely sure what I'm asking for advice on; more of an icebreaker for me to get into the habit of posting here and absorbing any advice that more skilled artists might offer.

Thoughts, please. =)

[LMAshton]

...and here's me jumping in with my first ever photo critique.

I like the strong blue sky mixed with the browns of the tree. I wonder how it would look if the tree was a bit brighter? It feels a bit on the dark side to me. I also wonder how it would look if the rest of the tree - top and left side weren't cut off.

I think I'd be inclined to shoot from a lower position to get less of the mountain in. The mountain line is confused with that lower branch, so it looks a bit... messy to me, confusing.

But I very much like the contrasting of the tree against the very vibrant sky.

I'm a newbie, so take it for what it's worth, all two rupees worth.

[isfppoet]

If possible, the tree could stand to be brighter, but the sky is gorgeous as it is, and I'd hate to change that.

You could try adding something similar to Adobe Lightroom's "Fill Light" which focuses only on brightening up darker areas. That might prevent washing out the perfect sky.

As for composition, I can't say what you should do differently since I don't know what the whole scene looked like, but I would have tried a shot(s) with the tree filling only part of the frame. I would have tried to get in more of the mountains/hills in the background, as they look quite pretty but are obscured somewhat by the tree. To do this, if possible, I would probably have just backed off enough to open up some space in the frame for a more "solid" background.

The tree is both interesting and beautiful, but a less "busy" composition might look cool too! *edit* I guess what I'm getting at here is, adding some "negative" or "empty" space to your composition would draw the eye to the tree but allow it to relax and enjoy the clouds and mountains in the background more without being distracted by all the lines formed by the branches. The tree is what makes this photo what it is; I just think it's a little too overwhelming all by its lonesome.

Great photo, just throwing out some ideas for variations more than trying to "correct" anything "wrong".