coral bark maple

[dishingthedivine]

We took a series of shots of our coral bark maple tree last night to try to capture some of it's magic. I liked that the background in this photo looks a bit dusky (this was taken at 9:30 at night in the pitch dark). But I'm bummed that the tree doesn't look as red as it does in real life, and in fact, they have white streaks that almost looks as if it's overexposed. In order to really see the red, it's best to look at it at night when everything surrounding it is black and the red really pops out, but in order to photograph it, I need to let in light so you can see it. What do you think? Keep it as it is? Do something in photoshop? Take it at a different time of day? Turn off the light that is shining on it? (If so, how would I get the lighting???)



f/4
20 sec
no flash
iso 200
0 exposure bias

Thanks!

[dishingthedivine]

BTW, here is what the tree looks like with a 10-second exposure. I like that the red pops more here, but the white balance is off. Maybe this pic is better? Gosh, I don't know...

[Sterling]

How about blendng both shots in photoshop? I'm not the one to tell you exactly how, but I'm sure someone will chime in with directions.

[offwhitedog]

Have you experimented with changing the lighting during the shot? for example, use a long exposure (30 sec or more) to get the background, but have the light switched on for only part of the time? kinda like slow-motion manual version of slow-sync flash