Early Holland

[Han Bouwmeester]

Last Saturday evening the weather forecast predicted a frosty, bright night with fog and sun afterwards in the morning; the ideal conditions for a good landscape photo-shooting. At seven in the morning I walked through the dark fields of the Twickel estate in the Netherlands. I looked on my compass to see were the sun would come up for the perfect place for my autumn morning shot.
When the first sunbeams shone on the fields two Roe Deers walked in my direction.
Unfortunately, I had not taken my tele-lens with me. But I wasn?t here for the Roe Deers and not long after they walked away the sun lights the fog and the frozen fields. I was able to take this picture, my favourite of that day.

Nikon D700; Nikor 24-70 mm f2.8 nano; iso 100; f22; 1/20 sec; from tripod
http://www.hanbouwmeester.nl/images/forumfoto's/BF-Landgoed-Twickel-ochtendlicht_HBN0271.JPG

[Gavin Spooner]

I usually post in the Avian forum, but I really like this image. Maybe the trees on the right could be balanced with similar on the left framing the main subject, otherwise, great.

cheers
Gavin

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hi Han, sublime light and mood created here! I love this, and wonder if a vertical crop with the main tree and sun in the centre would be better balanced? Although, this would lose the lovely fall of light to the right? Let's see what others think...

[Dave Mills]

Hi Han, The color and lighting of this image is beautiful. The way the light plays on the mist really makes it. I also agree about some form of crop. I first thought of cropping from the left near the dominant tree in order to make the opening between the trees more focussed. In addition I thought of cropping from the right up to the 2nd tree. Along with these crops I considered cropping from the top to a little above the dominant tree. To my eye none of these seemed to grab me. One version I did like was targeting the dominant tree and cropping out the area to the right of it.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Han,
Very good advice and thoughts given above.....I too may have preferred the tree alone but I also feel the OP was beautiful except the RH side was a bit overpowering. First I did a levels layer on mostly the darkest areas and even under the tree rays.....just to bring them out a touch more and give some of the subtler dark areas a bit more depth. I worked the crop tool from the right and top and finally a bit off the left and top.....settling on this presentation. It allows the RH silhouette a bit of a flow leading to the main tree. I did blur the sky and run NR on it.....as you had a bit of posterization.....maybe from doing corrections in 8 bit....but many other possible culprits also. Overall, I love your original image for this and feel it was very well thought out!......the crop choice is personal but it does strengthen this for me.....but I would like to know how you feel about it.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Han, I really like this. Lovely mood, and I like the tone of colours in this. Roman's repost works well. Congrats on a fine image.

[Robert Amoruso]

I looked at this one last night but still feeling a bit under the weather, did not post comments. I like Roman's repost and feel this strengthens the image well. I am glad to see the commentators picking up on the need to minimize the right side's heaviness in the image.

Han did well recognizing the potential of this lovely scene and with the mentioned tweaks has a killer image.

[Han Bouwmeester]

Hi guys,

Thank you all for replying and suggestions! Landscape is not my most favorite thing (that are birds) but I am having more fun on it the last period. So, there are enough things to learn and thats way I like this advises.
Thanks Roman for making your own variation of it. You are right that the right sight of the picture is a little dark but I have to be honnest that I made it some darker myself:D
I liked the contrast with the empty part left. But I have to say; that this is also very nice.
I now will have a look at my original files if I have a picture with the tree more solitair.

[Han Bouwmeester]

Back again,

I have found a variation on my other tree; the tree more alone:)
I also have done some extreme noise reduction to get even more that dream idea.
I am curious about the opinions about this one.
http://www.hanbouwmeester.nl/images/forumfoto's/Landgoed-Twickel_HBN0260.jpg

[Hazel Grant]

I like the strength of Roman's repost, but what most attracted me to this shot in the first place was the misty, mysterious mood of the original. I'm partial to that. The sun is a bit too much in the 3rd post. Cropping is probably the best "improvement" I'd make.

[Dennis "Curly" Buchner]

Nice capture Han, I too like Romans repost.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Han, I like the tighter crop and would recommend cropping the tree on the right out which will move the tree off center and give it total dominance. The lighting is still quite nice...

[Roman Kurywczak]

Oh Yeah....get rid of the right tree per Daves suggestion....and this is the one!