Tree in Front of an Angry Sky

[svantland]

After my last image, I have been working the selective exposure alot more. I am getting more comfortable with burning and dodging, but I would like feedback on how the effect I am striving for is being received. What was particularly challenging is dealing with the tree, and the bits of sky that come through it. Let loose, and tell me how you think my application of these techniques is working. The feedback I have been getting through this forum is amazing. Thank you so very much.

[tirediron]

Hmmm... I find the overall image a little extreme for my tastes, however, it is well done, and I think you've achieved a strong, moody image here. It would be interesting to see the original file just to compare to. Good job.

[svantland]

This is the original file here. I find one of my biggest challenges with post-processing is deciding when an image is 'finished'. I find my vision for the picture to be fluid as each adjustment helps me to see the picture in a different way and unlocks new possibilities. Once this picture started going moody, I jumped in with both feet.

[Marko]

Nice moody image - I like it.

The sky is excellent.
I might try to dodge (lighten) the grass and black bark of the tree a bit more, but it's personal at this point. Nice work!

[tomorrowstreasures]

I think it would make a really neat bw image... Neat shot!

[svantland]

Marko - I dodged the bark of the tree and some of the grass as you suggested. When I use the dodging tool, it seems to be that it really washes out the detail (i.e. saturation of colours and also the textures) Is that to be expected, or am I using it improperly?

Tomorrowstreasures - I tried the photo in B&W and I agree, I do like the effect. I haven't played much with doing these conversions and still have an awful lot to learn. Do you find the brightness coming through the sky distracting, or does it enhance the mood of the shot?

[liammclennan]

Can you describe what processing you have done to this image? I am particularly interested in the sky. I notice a bright edge along the horizon caused by dodging and burning.

[Marko]

I really like both of these renditions svantland. Nice job and it looks great in b/w. I almost never use the dodge tool itself. More often than not I'm doing something along these lines..

In terms of the actual techniques used to dodge and burn a photo you can try this one if you have Photoshop. Create a new layer and set your blending mode to soft-light or overlay. Use an opacity of around 4-15%. Use a SOFT paint brush with these settings. To burn (darken) use black as the foreground colour in the palette. To dodge (lighten) use white as the foreground colour.

[fante]

Think the tree needs to stand out more, at the moment the sky takes all the focus, which makes the picture a bit unbalanced.

[morgan]

i find the left corner to be distracting because it is too solid & grey. i do like the pic though.

[svantland]

Can you describe what processing you have done to this image? I am particularly interested in the sky. I notice a bright edge along the horizon caused by dodging and burning.

In this image I separated the sky into its own layer. I then adjusted the exposure using levels on the sky until I got the look that I wanted. I then adjusted the saturation slightly to try to get the colors to pop without making the image look unnatural. I did attempt using the burn tool on the bright spot in the sky towards the left hand side. The bright spot along the horizon occurs from my difficulty in accurately separating the sky from the horizon. I also find it challenging to select trees independently from the sky because of all the branches and leaves. I then addressed the foreground using levels and saturation again. I spent some time playing with the burn and dodge tools to address the exposure of the tree and other bushes, but I still have a lot to learn there. I think in the future I may leave the burn and dodge tools on the shelf, and try to separate the picture into more layers and address each independently. I am really interested in some of Marko's suggestions in utilizing painting over the picture selectively with black and white and I think I will be trying that to see how it works. I am finding that when I break pictures into seperate layers, sometimes the transitions between layers look fine, but other times they are very awkward.