Theme: Walk in the Woods

[Christopher Miller]

I took this photo in the woods behind our house earlier this year. I almost deleted it because it was quite underexposed, but I decided to play with it in photoshop first to see if I could make something of it.

I applied an orton effect, a blur overlay, and a vignette; and added some light rays. I then toned it using channel mixer, selective color, and hue/saturation. At various stages, I also used curves layers and shadow/highlight to lighten it a bit. Finally, I applied a little motion blur and gaussian blur, partially masking out the center of the image.

Any comments and suggestions would be most appreciated!

[denise ippolito]

Christper, Really nice mood created here. I like the orton effect and the image has an almost surreal look to it. I think the URC is a bit dark between the two trees-but I am on my laptop and when I move it back and forth the light changes,so lets wait to see what others say. Very nicely presented.

[Patti Edens]

Christopher, I am drawn into this photo. My eyes are led to the light and even though the overall mood is dark, the light is comforting in the "clearing just ahead". I like it a lot!

[Julie Kenward]

I'm with Patti...beautiful Orton treatment and the light, although very bright, is nicely subdued. I tend to squint when I look at bright light even in photographs and this one doesn't provoke that reaction so good job!

Love the translucency of the forest. Deep filtered light like this is one of my all time favorite things about photography. ;)

[Christopher Miller]

Thanks Denise, Patti, and Jules. Much appreciated.

Denise, I had actually darkened the URC between the trees a little because I felt more attention was focused on the center that way. Thanks for your thoughts on it.

[Paul Lagasi]

Chris..I enjoy Orton Effects..this is very well done, usually you need color to really make them pop...this really works as an old style image

[Indranil Sircar]

Beautiful composition, Christopher. I love the effect and the old look to it.

[Christopher Miller]

Thanks Paul and Indranil. Much appreciated!

[Cheryl Slechta]

Christopher, a beautiful image. It reminds me of light coming through stained glass windows.

[Christopher Miller]

Thanks Cheryl :)