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Canon XS (1000D)
1/6-second exposure @F16.0
Quantaray Digital UV Filter
Canon 18-55L @ 18
ISO 400
I found this bowed tree along a walking trail through a local park. I thought it was pretty in that it also had lighter colored bark than the trees surrounding it. It just seemed like this tree had experienced a little more in its life than all its neighbors.
Once again, I would appreciate as much criticism (negative and positive) that you can give me.
| Title: | A Tree Bows in the Woods |
| Username: | 
ChemicalBuddha |
| Uploaded: | 3 Feb 2009 - 12:45 AM |
| Camera: | Canon EOS 1000D, Canon Digital Rebel XS |
| Lens: | Canon EF-S 18-55 mm IS |
| Recording media: | JPEG (digital) |
| Tags: | Brandywine, Canon eos 1000d, Canon eos rebel xs, Landscape / travel, Tree, Wildlife / nature, Wilmington de, Winter, Woods |
| Votes: | Voting Disabled |
 | Critique Wanted |
| Modifications Welcome (Upload a Modification) |
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Comments
I quite like the simplicity of this and you have a nice lead-in, albeit that it leads out again. But although the tree may be obvious to you, it may not be to the casual observer of the photo.
So we may need to do a little work on it! In the mod I've uploaded, I've used the shadows/highlights tool to lighten the shadow areas and at the same time slightly tone down the highlights. I have also cloned out the part of the path which leads away from the tree, i.e. stopping it near the tree to improve the lead-in. Hope that helps.
The S-shaped path is a pleasing shape and a good way to lead the eye into the picture. Unfortunately, the trees themselves don't seem very interesting: they'd be fine as a background but aren't really enough to be the subject of the photograph. The tree you mention in your description is different (lighter and angled) but I don't think I'd have noticed that if you'd not drawn attention to it -- it doesn't really stand out.
But I'm not actually sure there's much that can be done. I don't see any way of isolating that tree from its background, just because it is so close to the other trees.
As an aside, there's not really much point using ISO-400 for a shot like this. The higher ISO gives you a shorter exposure but at the cost of noise in the image. That noise isn't visible when you scale the image down to show it here but it probably will be in the full-size version. For this stationary subject shot from a tripod, you may as well just shoot at two thirds of a second at ISO-100, which gives the same exposure but less noise. Only use higher ISO values when you need a faster shutter speed for some reason.
@Carabosse: Your mod does draw more attention to the tree but the path looks rather strange just stopping in the middle of nowhere.
DRicherby, Carabosse:
Thank you both for your constructive criticism. This is the exact type of help I need. I agree with both of you. The tree in question is completely lost among all those in the background. I'll have to head back there in the spring or fall when there are more leaves on the trees. Perhaps the trees will sort themselves out in more ways than just the interesting angle.
Thanks!
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