Looking for any CC on this photo. I was going for an abstract photo when i saw this group of trees. They looked so cool in a tight group like they were huddled together trying to get through the winter, cloaked in moss. I like this photo but it seems a little busy. Let me know what Y'all think.
Yes, it is a little busy, and I share your ambivalence, Brett, but I really like it,including the crop. It reminds me of Jackson Pollock's "Blue Poles" - high praise! Perhaps you could edit to highlight the busy look by manipulating contrast, and perhaps vignetting more heavily to get away from literal realism and a more abstract ("action-painterly"?) look. I've had a go, with little luck so far. :-(
It might be interesting at a smaller aperture than f/6.3 - even down to f/22 or f/32 so that the image is more evenly busy rather than sharp in the foreground only . I'd hope to have made images at a range of apertures in this kind of situation, as it affects the final result a great deal, and I can find it hard to predict where a "sweet spot" in this regard might lie.
I'd be interested to see your future abstractions.
On reflection, about our ambivalence, sometimes it is said that the greatest beauty NEEDS an imperfection, and perhaps this applies here. It keeps me looking, which says a lot.
Thank you for your advice! I'll have to try going to f/22, try a different focus point maybe. I was going to try a wider shot but the composition wasn't there...well I couldn't find one. But zoomed in I really liked the outcome. Like you said it's really busy but I keep looking at it longer and longer. I'll try playing around with the vignette a little more, maybe black and white, or super low saturation. Thank you for the ideas!
I nearly wrote that I'd stick with colour - I'm sure many will suggest mono - but my post was getting long. I think the subtle colour makes it more than a pattern, and perhaps like even the sharp/blurred variation, keeps one looking. I'm not sure about DOF. Given digital's "zero" cost per image and cheap storage, I think in this kind of scene aperture bracketing is well worth it, as until it's seen on screen, and perhaps manipulation begun, it can be hard to foresee an image's potential.
Your vignette & processing generally look good & I still can't improve the edit. Interesting!
This image is a very sound concept, I just don't know if you've *quite* pulled it off with this shot - I think it is a bit too cluttered.
I'd try it in as many different permutations as you can, but I think a longer zoom and shallower depth of field will be more effective. It may prove different. Just keep trying it until it works.
I think this is close but needs a little more to separate the layers and create some depth. If you ever get mist or fog in the area I'd go back and shoot it again with the mist subduing the background. Also I'd try the same shot but with a fully wide open aperture at a long focal length to increase the background blur.
You might try some selective dodging and burning as well. Turn the exposure down a stop or two in post, then paint or burn in a few of the center front branches only to create focus and separation. Throw a subtle vignette on top of that and you might have a really interesting shot here.
Thank you, I'll give the dodge and burn a shot and see what happens. If i make it back up to the spot i'll experiment a little, maybe try a bracketed shot.
i like the chaos it keeps you looking and thinking and that is hard to come by lately most shots get a look a like and pass on to the next this is mesmerizing to me and i like that about the shot
Thank you!
Quite gree, Joseph. I keep looking at it, too, which in a way says it all.
I played around with the contrast and tried small amounts of dodging and burning, backed down on the saturation. Still playing with it trying to find the sweet spot, but I'm liking the direction the photo is heading. Thank you everyone for your advice.
Much improved IMO. The foreground branches are well separated from the background now and there's a lot more depth to the image. The darker background along with the shallow depth of fiend adds some extra mystery.
Different - gains something but loses something too for me. Easier to read as a photo. Less Pollock, more photo of trees (which is fine in itself).