Mossy Tree

Canon 5DM2, 24-105@40, f22, 1.6s, ISO 160. PP - CS6: Boosted Vibrance to max, increased satutation and luminance of greens and yellows, Soft Light blend layer, curves with luminance mask to lighten the tree trunk and some limbs, sharpened with luminance mask to limit sharpening to highlights.
The image was taken along a stream near the Oregon Coast. I have included the unprocessed original image.

When viewed next to the unprocessed image, it looks a bit over the top to me, rather than out-of-the-box. But I'll be interested in your opinions.

The default, unprocessed ver.

Well, Douglas, I like them both. The first one almost looks inverted as well as HDR and I like it - it has a different fanciful quality to it and I like how the tree frames the background. I think the original would look great as a line drawing for Asian Week!:S3:

I was looking for a tree with lots of moss but not so much brush/small limbs obscuring the river. Never found it. The default image is exposed as to not blow out the water. Hence, the moss is underexposed and the yellow glow is not obvious in the unprocessed images. The moss in the processed ver is exaggerated. I may go back and tone down the vibrance and the sat/lum of the yellows and greens. I like the scene, but there are some areas where the blues look oversaturated. Funny how the flaws seem more obvious to me after posting the image.

Thanks, Cheryl for your comments.

Douglas, I like the way the water seems to be smoother and I like the tone of the water in the orig. I also like the darker mood of the OP. But the moss has a neat funky look to it- maybe somewhere in between.

I also like both versions, but also lean to the original. They each have their own appeal and the somewhere in between might be a real knockout answer.

Thanks for all the great suggestions and observation. I just finished printing a 16x26 on Luster after toning down the yellows and reducing overall saturation so the gamut warnings were barely visible in PS6. The water now looks more natural. The print looks pretty nice, but then what did you expect me to say about it.

I'm still not convinced about the lightening I did on the UL corner. I thought a lighter corner would enhance the perception of light sweeping in from the upper left to illuminate the moss on the tree. I'll live with the print for a while before I revisit the file.

Like the comp and your treatment to bring out the texture, light on moss, Douglas. Great mood to the OP.