The Lone Tree

weepete · Sep 2, 2019

Saturday night I decided to take advantage of a break in the weather and go to a popular spot and take a few shots. Challenging conditions with the wind, but I shot with post in mind. This is an exposure blend of 3 shots, many, many luminocity masking, rebuilding layers and learning and the past 3 days of my spare time spent in photoshop. I used 1 two stop ND filer, 1 one stop ND filter and a 2 stop GND to get the long exposure on the water. Probably the most photographed tree in Scotland, but not one I had in my library despite 2 previous unsucessful attempts at this location.

The Lone Tree by wee_pete, on Flickr

C&C welcome

Jeff15 · Sep 2, 2019

Nice shot, interesting concept.............

Jeff G · Sep 2, 2019

Awesome shot....errr shots? Nice job all the way around.

Dean_Gretsch · Sep 2, 2019

Great photo!

K9Kirk · Sep 2, 2019

Pretty cool pic.

SquarePeg · Sep 2, 2019

3rd time’s the charm! Very nice.

markjwyatt · Sep 2, 2019

Very nice shot. Time exposure? I like the way the tree stands out, probably helped by some of the layering? Curious what it would look like with just a simple conversion from RAW to jpeg plus general corrections, and without the extra layers?

In California we have the"Lone Cypress", which some claim to be the most photographed tree in the world (Monterey, California). It is the one at the end of the point in this shot. A year or two it was hit by lightning, and kind of messed up Monterey's trademark.

Zeiss Contax iia; Voigtlander SC Skopar 21mm fr 4; Ilford FP4+

Lone cypress point by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr

weepete · Sep 3, 2019

Jeff15 said:
Nice shot, interesting concept.............

Thanks Jeff15!

Jeff G said:
Awesome shot....errr shots? Nice job all the way around.

Thanks Jeff G, yeah a bit confusing with multiple exposures!

Dean_Gretsch said:
Great photo!

Thanks Dean!

K9Kirk said:
Pretty cool pic.

Thanks K9Kirk@

SquarePeg said:
3rd time’s the charm! Very nice.

Thanks SquarePeg! Yup it seemed to have worked this time. I'll probably retun a few more times, I do fancy a sunrise shot here too.

markjwyatt said:
Very nice shot. Time exposure? I like the way the tree stands out, probably helped by some of the layering? Curious what it would look like with just a simple conversion from RAW to jpeg plus general corrections, and without the extra layers?

In California we have the"Lone Cypress", which some claim to be the most photographed tree in the world (Monterey, California). It is the one at the end of the point in this shot. A year or two it was hit by lightning, and kind of messed up Monterey's trademark.

Zeiss Contax iia; Voigtlander SC Skopar 21mm fr 4; Ilford FP4+

Lone cypress point by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr

Thanks Mark! Less of a time blend more HDR. Basically one shot for the sky, one long exposure for the water and one fast shutter speed and high ISO to render the tree sharp with a little detail. The day was very windy so the tree is moving and blurred in all the long exposures. Had to build a layer with the tree cloned out in post which was a lot of work to rebuild the same clouds behind the tree in both layers so I could then overlay the fast shutter speed and keep the detail behind the leaves. Even just getting the masking for the tree was difficult.

I do have some straight shots taken a little earlier, there's a couple of keepers and I'll post up anothher in the next few days that's a single shot when I decide which I like best. Dynamic range was pretty high, covering about 12 stops as the sun is still pretty high in the sky when it dissapears behind the mountains opposite. So even with corrections it was pretty impossible to capture this in one shot without considering the wind.

I think I heard about that tree. But that's nature for you, constant cycle of death and rebirth!