Giant Sequoia surrounded by younger trees backlit by golden sunset.
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn) single shot Olympus EPL7 M-Zukio 12-42 21mm f13 1/320 sec ISO 2000.
Ken this is a very creative approach to shooting sunset in a forest. Using the tree to the left as a frame like this has a lot of impact for me. The texture in the bark of that tree is just wonderful. I also like your composition wit the way you arranged the path and the other trees, the comp is very well balanced.
Color is very much a subjective thing, and a matter of personal taste. I assume you were trying to convey a sunset feeling here. But for my taste this is slightly too warm, and too red. I’d like to see a little more color contrast, by reducing red slightly, and by cooling the shadows a bit. In real life shadows are naturally cooler, and seeing warm shadows looks a little “off”. I think these adjustments can be done subtely, without losing the warm sunset feeling. I also think the highlights in the sky have been recovered a bit too much, and could see a little more highlight contrast in the sky. I think a slight crop from the top would help too. I was thinking along the lines of this rework, which IMO elevates a good image to an even better one.
Ironically, sometimes cooling shadows can make the remaining highlights look even warmer, the advantage of having color contrast.
I agree with Ed’s comments. Also, the composition, with the large tree on the left, works very well. However, the balance is slightly off: if you could include more trees on the right, without putting the large tree exactly in the center, I think it would work better. To give more weight to the right side you could also crop the large tree on the left a bit.
Thank you so much and I agree! I am using this social distancing time to try and learn photoshop more. Most of this original post was Lightroom edited and I believe what you are referring to entire pixel layers being adjusted with shadows adjustment and coloring. I do appreciate your feedback!!
Thanks Tony for the feedback. I will play with the balance and see how I like it. I appreciate your feedback!
Yes I was referring to using photoshop, and using Luminosity masks to make some of these adjustments, although similar things can be done in Lightroom.
On the sky highlights, I used a TK lights mask to increase highlight contrast. In Lightroom you can do something similar with the Whites slider, or the lights slider in the tone curve (this can be powerful). Regarding cooling shadows, I used a TK Darks 3 selection and added the PS cooling filter (adding blue). In Lightroom you can use the adjustment brush, the temp slider, and the luminosity range mask to do something similar. In PS, the color balance adjustment layer lets you play with the cyan/red slider to reduce red.
Ken,
Excellent take away from the Sequoias! Great job referencing the up-close tree for scale and detail, but also for context and near-far composing.
I do like Ed’s shadow work; subtle but really tops this image off.
Wonderfully seen and crafted.
Lon
Thank you all so much! I really learned a bunch!
