Morning in the Oak

[K9Kirk]

I see what you're saying, the dark halo around the branches. I saw it too and it bothered me but I put them up anyway. Why, I don't know but I just went back to see what caused it and I knew I didn't do any brushing so it wasn't that, the original pic itself was under exposed or so I thought (I should've left it alone) so when I increased the exposure in editing the ring started to appear. I have my settings to increase the mid-tones and contrast a little and that just made the dark halo more pronounced. I gotta watch my exposures better. Thanks for pointing it out, I appreciate it.

Yeah, that's it mate. It's produced a lot of unnatural grey in the branches too, I guess that mid-tone adjustment bled over somehow into the sky nearby as well. Your original exposure looks pretty good to me, the birds are lit well and I like the shadow/light contrast. Good work with the 50mm.

Thanks, much appreciated. For some reason when I see dark shadows like that something tells me people are going to say it's too dark, that they can't see any detail in the shadows so I feel compelled to increase the exposure ... well, not anymore. They'll just have to live with it, lol!