Beach Tree

[ceeboy14]

 

[ceeboy14]

Got to do a bump on this one. I rather like the abstract quality of the image itself but especially like how the tree, though a bit over the top in the contrast range still retains a full grayscale without overblown highlights or chunked in blacks.

 

[sleist]

I think your treatment of this scene is a bit too dark. You've lost a lot of the details.
I used some shadow recovery and then tried to create a bit more variation in tone between the sand and the sky. I burned the highlights a bit as well.

 

[ceeboy14]

Thanks, Steve. I did a similar but different edit. it's a tree on a beach and thusly in 99% of the cases, quite drab and totally boring, hence the over-exuberance of the original PP work...this last edit while still a bit on the dark side is better on the overall tonal range.

 

[Heitz]

I think your treatment of this scene is a bit too dark. You've lost a lot of the details.
I used some shadow recovery and then tried to create a bit more variation in tone between the sand and the sky. I burned the highlights a bit as well.

I really, really like this.

 

[sleist]

Thanks, Steve. I did a similar but different edit. it's a tree on a beach and thusly in 99% of the cases, quite drab and totally boring, hence the over-exuberance of the original PP work...this last edit while still a bit on the dark side is better on the overall tonal range.

View attachment 51861

I would go lighter myself, but you clearly have another image in your head.
The crop in this version is causing problems for me with respect to composition. The new crop suffers from lack of room at the top and too much sand at the bottom.
I would also clone out the people on the right.

If this is a different crop of the same image in #1 - and you want to use this aspect ratio instead - I would slide the frame upward until the trunk and shrub is closer to the lower right corner.
This would give you more sky and less foreground which I think would work better with this crop - particularly if you are determined to keep things dark.
Brightening the image could work to make the trunk less of a focal point and I think you might get away with more foreground as a result - hard to say.

 

[ceeboy14]

Good ideas, Steve and as I come back to this image in a month or so, I'll probably explore each until I have the correct combination. meanwhile, I'll just let the image permeate a bit.

 

[KenC]

When I first saw the title, I though it was a misspelling of "beech" (so much misspelling on here) but then I saw it was yours and knew it wasn't.

I like your dark treatment of this. The tonal range of your edit works better for me, but I would crop the right even a little further than in the original, which gave me the feeling that just the tip of the tree was cut off, whereas in the edit the added elements seem like distractions.

 

[amolitor]

The problem with sleist's version is that it's an attempt to make a deliberately surrealist picture look realistic again.

I liked the original pretty well. It's a good concept, well executed. Not necessarily something I would do myself, or that I even like, but it has a lot of clarity of vision. The composition is nice, and lends itself to this highly graphical treatment, I think. There's a strong dreamlike quality to it. I dunno, is it the sensation of waking up on the beach after dozing off against another log of driftwood? It's something, anyways, it's reaching for something more.

When you make it look realistic, it becomes driftwood on the beach. A perfectly nice shot of driftwood on the beach, but that's all it is.

 

[terri]

The problem with sleist's version is that it's an attempt to make a deliberately surrealist picture look realistic again.

I liked the original pretty well. It's a good concept, well executed. Not necessarily something I would do myself, or that I even like, but it has a lot of clarity of vision. The composition is nice, and lends itself to this highly graphical treatment, I think. There's a strong dreamlike quality to it. I dunno, is it the sensation of waking up on the beach after dozing off against another log of driftwood? It's something, anyways, it's reaching for something more.

When you make it look realistic, it becomes driftwood on the beach. A perfectly nice shot of driftwood on the beach, but that's all it is.

^^ Agreed. I actually like the first one, but would only add that lightening the sand brings more texture into the image, which I think helps - but otherwise, the first one is the best. I liked sleist's edit, but he lightened it and forgot contrast - the waves have gone gray, and this image will live or die by punchy contrast, IMO. It's the surreal aspect of it that makes it effective. A slight lightening of sky and sand for texture, but high contrast works. Definitely worth some more edits, ceeboy, it's nice.