Lonely tree

[Jerry van Dijk]

Normally I'm not a fan of harsh midday light for landscapes, but in this case I liked how it accentuated the textures and contrast of the wheat. I doubted on a 16:9 pano crop, but didn't like it.

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, handheld w. IS, 14mm (84mm equiv.), ISO-100, F/4.5, 1/640 sec.
ACR5.7/CS4. Digital -1 EC grad filter, levels, clarity, selective EC compensation on the tree.

[Robert Amoruso]

Jerry,

I like this simple composition but very pleasing to look at. I like the clouds location in relation to the trees. Nice flow in the upper part of the frame.

I suggest added black to the blue, cyan and white channels in PS Selective Color to bring out the clouds in the sky more and darken it somewhat. Shadow/Highlight in PS also good choice here t bring out the whites using the highlight slider settings.

[Morkel Erasmus]

A classic image Jerry! Some good suggestions by Robert to get more out of the data that's evidently there in the file...
Would work well on a motivational poster of some kind :w3

[dankearl]

Neat idea and nice framing the tree with clouds.
I think a more pano photo with some off the bottom would work well.
The light looks fine to me.

[Rachel Hollander]

Jerry - I like the very simple and clean composition. Nice clouds and Robert's suggestions will only improve them.

TFS,
Rachel

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi all, thanks for commenting!
I followed Roberts suggestions and also removed some cyan from the white channel to make the clouds whiter. I removed some magenta from the white channel as well because removing cyan made the lower clouds somewhat pinkish. Finally I ran some noise reduction on the sky. I also took a sliver off the bottom.
I like the result, it makes the clouds stand out much better. Thanks Robert and Dan!

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Jerry, a very simple and pleasing composition. The repost yields more detail in the sky which is nice. My only suggestion is to evict the small vertical cloud and the diagonal cloud/contrail along the top of the comp towards the right. Not sure how you feel about removing such elements though. Some scenes do work nicely in harsh midday sun. I think you found a lovely one!

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Andrew, thanks for commenting! I have been contemplating that cloud for a while. I'm a bit reluctant with this type of image manipulation, but I think it would improve the image further. I'm actually surprised that you are the first one to bring it up!
Here in Western Europe, it seems almost impossible to not have these airplane trails in the sky. Even in the remotest natural places, we are still confronted with man's influence on the environment....

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Jerry, I would have no problema losing the contrail :S3: The sky color in the repost is getting close to funky.... My suggestion would be a healthy crop from the bottom so that you wind up with 1/3, 1/3, and 1/3 if you know what I mean. I am surprised that no one mentioned that!

[Jay Gould]

Jerry, I too would clean up the clouds; I would not, however, crop the foreground to a traditional 1/3 approach. The long crisp grassy foreground is what takes this out of the ordinary. I would have liked to see this same scene shot from an even lower angle. Horses for courses!! Well done.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Arthur and Jay, thanks for your comments!
Arthur, I see what you mean about the colors. I think I overdid the alterations suggested by Robert a bit in my quest for more detail in the clouds!
I've been puzzling with the crop for quite a while now and of course tried the classic composition rules. For the reasons Jay mentions, I keep coming back to the OP, even though it doesn't follow the rule of thirds exactly. But I learned on a very good online nature photography forum to break out of the box every now and then! :w3

[Jerry van Dijk]

OK, here goes another try. Different approach now: I expanded the grad filter in ACR somewhat downwards to also include more of the lower clouds and added darker blue to it. In PS I added blacks in selective color to the whites and cyans, holding back a little more than last time. Following Roberts tutorial (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/20434-Image-Contrast-and-Tonal-Range-Tweaks-Part-1-by-Robert-Amoruso), I used USM to increase the local contrast in the sky, bringing up the whites in the clouds and adding more detail. I also cleaned up the trail and cloud as suggested and went back to the original crop.
Image saved at 900 px width and 56% quality. Larger image with lower quality introduced artifacts in the sky.

[Jay Gould]

I think the tree is too strong in the last RP.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Jay, thanks for taking another look! Can you specify what you mean by "too strong"? Too contrasty and oversharpened perhaps? I did some rework on the local adjustments on the tree, reducing contrast/vibrance should be an easy fix.

[Jay Gould]

The OP is strong yet soft; the greens and blues are more to the pastel than the saturated.

Understand, I am a strong saturation person when it comes to hot latin colors, e.g., sunrises and sunsets.

However, realizing that the is a midday image, I simply like the softer colors than the harsher colors of the RP.

Horses for courses.

And I definitely like the cloud cleanup.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Jay, thanks again! I'll have a go and try to get the best of both worlds.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Jerry - I like the first repost but feel you can desaturate the cyan in the sky some there...and lose the trails. In your second repost there is a slight halo around the tree too :w3

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks Morkel! I noticed the halo already in the original image, but it didn't show there as much because of the desaturated color of the sky. I even remasked the tree in the second RP, but don't seem to be able to get rid of it. I had problems with a halo in an earlier post as well, which didn't even include masking, but also some considerable color adaptations. Is this a common problem? I can remember you had a similar problem with a Kalahari tree a long time ago..

[Hazel Grant]

I've learned a lot reading the suggestions. Thanks to all for that. I too think the tree is a bit harsh in the last repost, but love the overall work done here. Good shot. Classic. Hmmmm, wonder what it would look like in BW???

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Hazel, thanks for commenting. I've learned a lot too! BW might work well with this image, and at the very least would solve the funky colors in the first RP! :bg3:

[Jerry van Dijk]

Ok, here's one final version incorporating all the points raised. I used the second version of the image and removed cyan from the cyan channel and magenta from the white channel. I removed the cloud in the UR corner and the airplane trails. NR on the sky and added a little sharpness using USM to the whole image. I found out the halo in RP 2 was caused by the harsh USM treatment on the sky, which brought out the slight halo around the tree in the original image quite stongly.
Thanks again for thinking with me on this image.

[Hazel Grant]

Thanks for working this through to create a great final post. I learned a lot just reading the suggestions, too.

[Jay Gould]

The final RP is the winner; good on you for working through and learning so much from all presented.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks Jay, that's why I like BPN so much. Many people with loads of experience very willing to offer advice. Thanks everyone for sticking around and giving input!

[Andrew Aveley]

great simple composition with awesome feedback from BPN :) Maybe a little more overall saturation or local contrast adjustment.