Copper Beech

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Everyone,
This is my first post in Macro and Flora and I'm not sure whether I should have posted here or in OOTB, so feel free to move it if need be!! This is a little different from my usual fare so I'm not sure how to assess it - I need your help here...:D
The colours over here have been really spectacular this autumn - never better - sort of makes up for our truly terrible summer..sort of...
40D 100-400 @ 360mm
F5.6 1/320 sec
ISO 640
Exp comp -0.3
Darkened the BG in PS and saturated the colours somewhat.Thanks so much!
Best regards to all,
Nicki

[Ed Vatza]

Ah, "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" - one of my favorite Sherlock Homes adventures! :D Actually, I am a Master Copper Beechsmith in the Sons of the Copper Beeches scion society! :D And in honor of that I planted a Copper Beech in my front yard. They are beautiful trees. Mine still has leaves!

I think this is an interesting concept, Nicki. And I think it looks good against the black background but I think the UR corner gets lost a bit. However, there are a couple of things that trouble me a just bit. First I personally find the empty part of the twig reaching toward the LL distracting because I keep feeling something (leaves) should be there. My eye keeps moving down there in search of leaves. And while I really like the light on the leaves, there is something about the top two that doesn't look quite right to me. They seem a little too dark.

One thing you could try is to rotate the image CW (to place it on more of a diagonal) and crop into a horizontal. I'm not sure how that would work but it could be interesting.

Still an interesting first post. I look forward to others. (And I promise I won't bore you with more Sherlock Holmes stories :D).

[Stu Bowie]

Comp wise, I would turn this image 180 deg, then the empty part of the stem wont look lost. As you look at it now, I would also get rid of the spare twig hanging in the top RH Cnr. The darkened BG works well, and the colours look great. Well captured Nicki.

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Apart from the rotation suggestions given above, you might want to try alternate compositions with just one leaf in the frame. May turn out interesting...

[Julie Kenward]

I am thinking along the same lines as Kaushik. I love the lower leaf on the right side but the other leaves and twigs I find a bit distracting. Maybe a different crop?

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Guys,
Thanks so much for your comments and suggestions. I have had a bit of a play with the composition and haven't come up with an alternative that I like as yet, but I'll keep fiddling and see what I come up with!
Ed, as you are such a Sherlock Holmes fan I might just have to make you an honorary Brit...:D:D:eek:
Regards,
Nicki

[Mike Moats]

Hey Nicki, welcome to the macro section and nice first post, the light really makes the image pop and would agree it might be better rotated 180.