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John Chardine
12-29-2009, 08:50 PM
We had exactly that today and it clung to everything beautifully.

This is a full frame image. I adjusted Levels and sharpened. Hope you like it.

PS Is this a "Landscape", flora, or wildlife. In a sense it's all three and neither.

Canon EOS 5D, 17-40/f4 @ 27mm
capture date: 29 December 2009
exposure program: Aperture Priority
ISO speed: 200
shutter speed: 1/320
aperture: f5.0
exposure bias: +1.3
metering: Pattern
flash: OFF

Roman Kurywczak
12-29-2009, 09:10 PM
Hi John,
I love the days when the snow clings to everything! I think this images either needs a bit more contrast or playing around with some adjustment layers to provide more depth and drama as right now, the brightest sky areas are drawing my eye! Let's see how others feel.

Dave Mills
12-29-2009, 11:43 PM
Hi John, Agree those days can be magical with the snow clinging to the trees and it usually doesn't last that long.
I love how the black branches almost look like veins running through the snow. The image is a bit flat and as Roman suggested either more contrast or an adjustment that will create depth. Good eye on this...

John Chardine
12-30-2009, 07:07 AM
Thanks guys. It was the dark branches in the FG that caught my eye (and Dave's!)- I was essentially under a tree looking out. I see what you mean about flatness but I find most images I make like this look flat and disappointing in relation to what I saw with the naked eye. I guess this is the challenge- to produce an image with depth in these situations. I'll keep working on it, I have a lot to learn! I'll play with the contrast in the image a bit as I may have some room on the highlight side (the dark branches are close to blocked black I think).

Anita Rakestraw
12-31-2009, 03:42 PM
Beautiful, John! Love this kind of image.

[PS Is this a "Landscape", flora, or wildlife. In a sense it's all three and neither.] It's almost an abstract. :)

Ed Cordes
12-31-2009, 11:45 PM
I like the scene and the overall feel. I agree that eh snow on the dark branches needs a bit of brightening and the sky showing through needs to be toned down a bit.

Axel Hildebrandt
01-03-2010, 12:54 PM
I like the composition, patterns and mood in this one. I don't find the BG distracting but could see it a bit darker.

Robert Amoruso
01-04-2010, 09:30 AM
John,

Since you are in shade looking out, the sky will be brighter then the underside of the snow. I don't see a way to lower the bright sky without it looking un-natural. I suggest increasing contrast to make the dark branch to bright snow stand out more.

In the repost I used a curves adjustment and the high contrast preset in PSCS3. I then did a local contrast enhancement on a BG copy using USM at 20/50/0. I cropped off the bottom as the branches are smaller there and do not support the larger/thicker ones in the top 4/5 of the image.

John Chardine
01-08-2010, 08:59 PM
Thank you so much for all your help on this image, and to Robert for the excellent repost. I will try the method myself.