Tree of Life

[goooner]

Shot this over the weekend. I fell trying to get there, and almost lost my kit in the pond. I took 3 exposures and will try and make a HDR out of it. This was the middle 'correct' exposure. F14 5s @ 18mm. I couldn't get a portrait view using my 'gorilla-paw'
CC welcome.

 

[xzyragon]

I'm not sure if I like how smooth the water is compared to how crisp the leaves are

 

[jjphotos]

I agree with the post above me.
The contrast between the extremely in focus leaves and the smooth water you created is a bit out of place.

 

[goooner]

I probably should have opened the lens more.I guess f8 or 7.1 would also have done the trick. It was at around 14h30, so getting out earlier would probably have given me a bit more light to work with. Had trouble with the AF as it was quite dark, that was one of the reasons I opted for f14. I also forgot to take off my IS, but it seemed to have worked on this shot.

 

[korreman]

The photo definitely has potential. I would've included more of the water. Also, I would've set a faster shutter speed. There's that sweet spot where the water is smooth, but still has texture. It's usually around 1/10th to 1 second. Try to work a bit with the colors too. I bet you can find some tutorials on colors in autumn.

 

[goooner]

Thanks for the replies. I tried to go portrait, but my 'gorilla-paw' would not let me. Should have taken my tripod. I could not move back as there was a pond, unfortunately. Thank you for the comments. I will go and try again soon.

 

[goooner]

So I've tried to make a HDR out of this and I'm a little disappointed to say the least. I used the photomatix plugin for LR. I've brightened the 'middle' exposure a bit and I can hardly see a difference between the HDR and the single shot (ignoring the crop of course). The HDR was produced from 3 shots (-2-0+2), and the processed Tiff file was 140MB large! I guess the overall gloominess of the shot was just not suited for HDR. C&C welcome....


Non HDR

HDR