Today I went out to the forest for a few hours scouting for some new locations and subjects. On the way home I passed this pond which I generally don't shoot as it's often not that interesting, but with the flat light and dead still conditions it was giving some lovely reflections.
So I thought it would do well as a black and white since flat light in forests is often a great opportunity to emphasise textures and tonal range. I zeroed in on the small pine in the dead centre as it was quite different from the taller trees around it, so hopefully it provides a reasonable visual anchor point.
The main goal with this shot was to bring out the texture of the forest - does it succeed? Thoughts and feedback welcome :)
beautiful scene did you try and do multiple layers of contrast so that the center main tree pops out a bit more to give the scene a bit more dimension the texture is perfect but you don't get any feeling of depth ill try and work off the jpeg and see if what im thinking of works...this is what i came up with the main tree stands out a bit more
Hey Joseph,
No I didn't, such digital wizadry is not for me really. 99% of all shots I create are simply 1 good exposure processed with universal adjustments in lightroom.
In this shot depth is something I kind of wanted to avoid really - it's about the feeling of being faced with that wall of branches. Almost like a screen of static. But would love to see what you make of it - happy send you the RAWs if you'd like to have a go.
It inevitably looks a lot better without the compression from the upload too (not making excuses tho!)
now i see what your goal was... it was met. i often tend to overlook the intent of the artist im just looking at the image and it's most basic principles and make sure they are met light, exposure, comp, dof etc.... its certainly a keeper!
David, that feeling of being faced with wall of details (you did that very well) is a rather aggressive approach in this case IMO and I prefer more the photographic approach which cased Joseph.
Your experiment is more like a concept with a theme of texture, which maybe some other scene would fit more. Anyway beautiful image with nice conversion.
Woodland is really hard to shoot and I have yet to find a recipe that works most of the time. In general I think a telephoto lens is a better fit than a wide angle, but there are exceptions.
I like the way the tree reflects in the water, but same as Joseph I think it needs to stand out more. Maybe the color of its leaves could have done the trick but we don't know that from the B&W image.
Funnily, I took a similar picture the other day, but I've been on the fence about it. It feels too busy for my taste.