Pure Paririe

[larryb52]

Camera Canon Rebel XTI
Lens Kit 18 -55 zoom
Shutter speed 1/60
Aperture f8.0
ISO 100
Processing Three images -2 - +2 Exposure tone mapped with Photomatix,
Curves adjustment in Photoshop
Slight saturation of the green in the tree.


I'm going to enter this photo in a challenge and would like some feedback on the merits and problems with this image. The challenge is open no specific assignment.



Thanks LarryB

[irieness]

Hey Larry. I think your picture, technically is pretty good. I like the dark tones of the clouds and the exposure are all good. However, the way you composed this shot, puts much emphasis on the tree. The tree in my humble opinion is not that interesting. If you replace the tree with a person, I think the shot turns out to be completely different and more interesting -- just because the subject relates more to us . However this is not to say it isn't possible to make an interesting tree shot, I've done it many times. Perhaps a different angle where you have a few steps back might work better. I'm thinking of a vast flat landscape, with all of a sudden a lone tree popping out. Just an idea

[larryb52]

Thanks for taking the time to critique my photo.
I was thinking about the same thing, i like the tone of this image, i'm wasn't sure of the placement of the tree. Of course these kind of details don't really come out until your home and see it on a monitor. I remember when I processed this image my first reacton was that there should be more space in the fore ground.

[sunvalley23]

irieness has some great ideas. One of my favorite prairie shots is just a bit of grass (maybe 1/8 of the image, on the bottom) with a beautiful sky. You have the beautiful sky here to be sure, and the great grass. I too am not a huge fan of the tree, but removing yourself further from it would lead to a better dramatic impact.

[EOBeav]

Yeah, the tree just seems to be the weakest link here. I would almost rather see something that looks slightly out of place here, like a rusting out old Chevy or an abandoned farm implement of some kind?

I like what you've done with the HDR work on here...looks very natural and not overprocessed at all. Especially that sky.

[larryb52]

There appears to be universal agreement that the tree is the weakest part of this image, so I went back to my files of photos taken on this day and I did have another wiht a slightly better tree. Here is a revised photo of just about the same thing but a more appealing tree. I also cropped it so there is more sky as well.

[denja]

Personally, I think you have a couple of great images here. The biggest thing that I notice is the ghosting around the trees in both images. It almost gives the impression of a slightly overdone HDR.

Jim

[larryb52]

Final Verision

Thanks to everyone for the comments I recieved. A famous painter once said that the worst critic for a painting is the painter. I have a vision that I want to bring across, but without good feedback I don't really know if that vision is getting across.

Here is my final version that I will submit to the challenge. I went back after denja's coments and tried to work on the halo effect a little.

[denja]

Great job Larry! Not only did you get rid of the halo, but I love the sky! Super job!

Jim