Light and dark

[evacguy]

The quality of light in this forest shot was amazing. I tried to capture the contrast between the emerald green and the dark side of the tree trunk. And the vine running up the tree marking the terminator looked almost like a lighting bolt. Unfortunately, my photograph and post processing doesn't do the scene justice. Any suggestions on how I could improve the post processing, or how I should have take the shot. The second image is just a slightly tighter crop.

• ILCE-7M4
• FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II
• 70.0 mm
• ƒ/11
• 1/80 sec
• ISO 200

• ILCE-7M4
• FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II
• 70.0 mm
• ƒ/11
• 1/80 sec
• ISO 200

 

[BrianN]

Hi ,

A couple of things from me.

1. I would have used a wider aperture to help give a bit of separation with the background being out of focus....I would try something like f5.6 or less.

2. I am not sure what was around where you took the image, if you could have moved to your right to remove that tree in the background that I feel draws my eye to its darkness.

3. In post processing to help bring the focus to the tree in the foreground I would create a subject mask for that tree and invert and slightly desaturate the colours and possibly a slight reduction in the luminance to make the background a bit less prominent , allowing the main focus on the hues of the foreground tree.


Hope this helps

 

[evacguy]

Hi ,

A couple of things from me.

1. I would have used a wider aperture to help give a bit of separation with the background being out of focus....I would try something like f5.6 or less.

2. I am not sure what was around where you took the image, if you could have moved to your right to remove that tree in the background that I feel draws my eye to its darkness.

3. In post processing to help bring the focus to the tree in the foreground I would create a subject mask for that tree and invert and slightly desaturate the colours and possibly a slight reduction in the luminance to make the background a bit less prominent , allowing the main focus on the hues of the foreground tree.


Hope this helps

Hi Brian, many thanks for you helpful comments. To discuss your points:
1) I tried f2.8 but didn't like how it looked. I wanted to get the horizontal logs covered in moss in the background in focus and found that f2.8 lost them completely. I don't recall if I tried f5.6, but I should have as you suggest.
2) I agree with the tree in the background, it is distracting. But again, I wanted to get those horizontal logs into view. I don't think I concentrated too much on the background or else I would have tried as you suggest.
3) Again, I wanted to keep the horizontal logs covered in moss as part of the scene. But as you suggest, they are a little distracting. I've tried to tone down the back ground as you suggest, what do you think? While sacrificing the green horizontal log, I think there is much greater focus on the main event, and so its a better image. I've also toned down the highlights on the main tree.

• ILCE-7M4
• FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II
• 70.0 mm
• ƒ/11
• 1/80 sec
• ISO 200

 

[BrianN]

It was my pleasure, yeah I think that looks better now with what you have done.

Cheers

 

[evacguy]

It was my pleasure, yeah I think that looks better now with what you have done.

Cheers

Many thanks Brian.

 

[BrianN]

Many thanks Brian.

My pleasure