A fall scene

hey fellow npn-ers!

those of you who know me, know that most of my work are grand landscapes. i’m pretty confident with that kind of stuff. my weak spot definitely are smaller scenes. abstracts. forests. i’m really bad at that - and that’s why i decided to work on my skills.

this image was taken a few years back on a dull day in april in patagonia. for me it comes close to what i had envisioned during capture. the huge question is - what about you? does this image work for you?

What technical feedback would you like if any?

capture technique should be fine, but what about the processing? does it work for you? why? why not?

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

is the scene itself strong enough? not sure if it conveys the atmosphere i had in mind.

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)

single exposure. worked mostly on contrast and colours.

thanks a lot!
cheers,
joerg

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Hello Joerg,
I understand exactly what you mean regarding the challenges associated with making pictures of more intimate landscape scenes. I like this image a lot: the way you framed it with the tree trunks at the center. I love the colours and the contrast between the blue colours of the background and the orange in the leaves. There is a surprising amount of depth in this scene. I rarely saw this type of pictures of Patagonia on the internet. Well seen and greatly executed. Congrats!

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Joerg,
I do like the this fall scene and these two trees are a fine subject. I also like your treatment in processing. The dull light and dark trees work very well for me. I also find the little red trees near the bottom to add a nice bit of interest. One small item, I might have preferred to not have the ribbon of stone at the bottom of the scene. I don’t thinking cropping it off is an improvement. Regardless, this is a very nice image as presented.

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What a fantastic subject. This tree is simply amazing Joerg! The blacks are rich without going too dark, the yellows and reds look “just right to my eye” and the background fades out very nicely. I don’t see any camera specs but your depth of field I think is spot on. The background is not sharp enough to distract from the main subject but there are enough details to give the viewer information about the background. Just wondering if you have a frame with the entire tree in it? I’m sure there is a reason you chose to crop in on it like distractions around the frame. The rocks in the bottom foreground don’t bother me but I might clone out the vegetation in the lower right and make it all rocks. Not even a nit, just a suggestion. Very strong scene. No need to beat yourself up over this. I wish it was mine! :slight_smile:

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Joerg, this is a very strong intimate landscape. You did a good job of venturing outside your comfort zone. The high contrast processing works well for me, the color of the foliage is rich but not over the top. Autumn tree portraits can sometimes be boring if all they end being is a wall of solid color. But this tree has an interesting radial pattern, and enough gaps in the leaves that the graphic shapes of the limbs are nicely revealed.

I agree with @Alan_Kreyger the bottom feels cramped, but a crop doesn’t help.

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Joerg,

I like your composition. It has that tall tree giving a central element that accentuates the tallness of the tree and the side branch going right, along with the shorter tree giving left movement really gives the whole image a dynamic sense to an otherwise quite intimate scene.

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thanks everyone for taking the time to look and comment!

@Alan_Kreyger the original capture is framed a bit wider, but it gets chaotic quickly.

@Alan_Kreyger, @Ed_McGuirk yep - cropping doesn’t help. i do have a bit more room on the bottom, but that would be even more rocks. i think i’ll leave it as is.