Is the tree to dark?

[klcm]

One of many...

My husband and I recently purchased a Canon Rebel XSi and headed to the Rocky Mountains. We took many, many shots learning the camera and trying various framing, zooms, etc...

This is one of the pictures I am drawn to as a "favorite" but I think the left side may be a little to dark. It was taken on a shaded path around the lake w/ the mountain in full sun. So, is the lighting wrong? What should I have done?

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
F-stop: f/10
Exposture Time: 1/200 sec
ISO: 200

Any other tips would be great as we are loving our hobby and trying to learn more!

[Tusia]

In my opinion, it is actually a good thing that the trees are dark on the both sides as they provide natural framing to the sun lit montain, thereby drawing attention to the centre of the picture. Great shot, very nice perspective

[thomasfolkeandersen]

I agree with the compositional comment about the trees framing the mountain nicely. I really like that the branches are not 'merging' with the mountain, very nicely composed with attention to detail.

On this monitor (away from home at the minute) there seems to be some green and detail to be seen in the tree branches on the left.

You could have used a little bit of fill-flash (preferably an off-camera flash that would allow you to hold and direct the flash onto the trees) to bring out some more detail, but only just subtlely to give a hint more detail (I often keep my flash dialled down about 1 3/4 stop for fill like this).

Alternatively if the shadows are indeed not blocked up you could try to make some local adjustments to increase the exposure in that part of the image via post-processing work in Photoshop or another image editing program that allows local adjustments.

It looks like a beautiful location. Great place to bring the camera along!

Cheers....