Smokey Mountain Dogwoods

[Jay Sheinfield]

Taken on a recent trip to Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains. I added a bit of canvass on the left, as the fence post was captured too close to the frames edge. This was taken in early morning light, with some lingering fog in the hills. I tried my best to capture the subtle lighting of the scene.

Nikon D3x
85mm
f/16, 1/8 sec.
-0.3 ev
tripod mounted

Feedback welcome................

[John Ippolito]

Hi Jay, this is a lovely composition, and the feel of quiet early morning is well captured here. The conversion works vey well in this image. It is a classic with great lines. The very upper left has a bit of a splotchy look like artifacts from the jpeg conversion maybe. All in all a beautiful landscape.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Jay - I think I recognize that lane from my trip last fall. I think the road and fence as leading lines works well and so does the conversion. Nicely done. I do see the part that John mentioned.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Jay, a lovely rural scene with the gravel road leading us through those main trees and into the distance. Works very well with the conversion too. Good call by John on the splotchy artifacts. Very nicely seen!

[Jay Sheinfield]

Thanks John, Rachel and Andrew. Your comments are appreciated. John, good catch on the ULC. Rachel, the road is Sparks Lane which traverses, Caces Cove Loop Road.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

This is very artie, great work Jay. I like the moody scene and the road leading through the trees, nicely done.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I like the composition, Jay. The conversion isn't doing that much for me - needs a bit of oomph? Maybe try dodging the highlights a bit and burning the shadows, very slightly, to get more tonal separation and apparent contrast?
Would you mind posting the colour version for comparison? :e3

[Jay Sheinfield]

Thanks Morkel, I gave a touch more contrast playing with curves to open the shadows a bit, preserves the blacks and punch the whites..........is this closer, or too far? I will post the OP in a few.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Here is the original image straight from CNX2.......no adjustments

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Jay,

in your OP my eyes are drawn to the upper LHS for some reason I have no clue of. My feel is that the path is the subject leading to somewhere. I took your color RP and tried a few things pretty fast and came out with this one.
I did normal conversion in Silver Efex. Turned down Brightness pulled a few sliders, Soft Contrast I highly suggest, try it out to both ends what it does. Mostly it does not good, but in some images it does great things when used careful.
I pulled a gradient from the bottom to lead the light into from the lower LHS corner. Darkened the far BG upper LHS corner, just so much that I could still see trees. Was surprised to see trees in your OP I thought it is sky with clouds!
Lightened up the path a bit more to where it lead. Maybe a Midtone or Light lumo contrast can help more for the path to bring in more in the subjects corner!
As well used a gradient from top. The gradients i slightly rotated that they "draw" the light to the subject. Hard to see here, but they did the job for me! When I used gradient I pull the slider to - or + 100% that I really see where it goes. When this is adjusted than I adjust the % !
WDYT? :e3
Lots can be done with this one :S3:


Ciao
Anette

PS I might even would brighten up more the very end of the path, behind the tree on the left in the path, the very end !!!

[Jay Sheinfield]

Hi Anette. Thank you for taking the time and effort to present another view of the image. I may go back and re-process the image from the start and consider all the feedback I have received.

[Anette Mossbacher]

No prob at all Jay. When I do a B&W it takes me about 10-30 attempts. If you are keen on it here a good book: From OZ to Kansas
Lots to learn from it :bg3: for B&W. Takes a little while to get through. I am just at the very end now of this book, but also take a one by one workshop with a good friend for B&W and later this year another one.
What I did with your image is just a scratch you can do according this book. There are many more & better technics described, which you actually do while reading it on your PC.

Ciao
Anette