Tree experiments

yummifruitbat · Oct 8, 2005

Me again...

On the same trip to Southerndown, I spotted this windswept tree and liked the pattern of the clouds behind it. At the time I thought 'hmm, black and white?', but once I got into Photoshop I couldn't decide what to do with it.

The first image is pretty much straight out of the camera, any opinions on the others?

Thanks for looking!

Yummifruitbat

BTW, all of my photos are taken with an Olympus C-750UZ, sometimes with Hoya UV(0) or Polariser filters. If I wasn't a poor student I'd like to get my hands on some DSLR kit but... oh well :meh:

Mercury149 · Oct 8, 2005

Great Capture, my fav is the BW one!

jadin · Oct 9, 2005

The photo doesn't gain anything by being in color. So the b&w works very well. Although I will say the clouds seem stronger in the original.

LaFoto · Oct 9, 2005

I like the colour version (first), though it might not, as jadin is observing, gain anything. But the clouds, which were what you wanted in connection with the windswept tree, are better to be seen in that one. Overall I'd prefer to see it a bit more saturated (or darkened a bit with the contrasts pushed).

The last two versions don't speak to me, I'm afraid.

Mansi · Oct 9, 2005

Very dramatic... even more so in the b/w
i love it!
however i would have liked to see it even more contrasty... pehaps it would add to the mood of the image

nice variations... but like corinna (lafoto) says the last two don't do it for me.. #1 & #2 :thumbsup:
thanks for sharing :mrgreen:

yummifruitbat · Oct 9, 2005

Thanks for all your comments guys!

I agree about the last two shots - my favourite was the B&W too. Good fun to experiment though

I see what you mean about losing some of the impact of the clouds, so I've gone for a kind of half-way point between LaFoto and jadin, and tried to up the contrast in the B&W. I didn't want to take it too far or I'd start to burn out the details near the horizon.

Better/worse? OTE, btw :wink:

Thanks again for looking!

yummifruitbat · Oct 9, 2005

Also I've noticed that my second attempt at B&W seems a bit noisier than the others - not really sure how to get rid of that

jadin · Oct 9, 2005

The new one is superb! It has all the right elements. As far as grain goes in b&w, grain is (usually) very acceptable, so no reason to eliminate it.

yummifruitbat · Oct 9, 2005

Wow, thanks very much! :blushing:

LaFoto · Oct 9, 2005

Congratulations!
You got it!
Now I also like the black and white version better than the colour version!

PlasticSpanner · Oct 9, 2005

New version looks spot on except everything seems to be leaning and sloping to the right. The camera may be level but with so many elements in the same direction would it look better rotated a little?

yummifruitbat · Oct 9, 2005

I see what you mean, but the way everything slopes to the right is one of the things I liked about the photo - everything (most obviously the tree) has been swept to the right by the wind from the sea.

But thanks for commenting anyway!