Up a tree

[Matty B]

Hi,

I was keen to try my new wide angle Nikkor last Tues. (12-24 DX) so I chose this giant Pinus maritima in one of the gardens I work in as a subject. I took my time setting the tri-pod up etc and a jet apppeared on the scene just for a little more added interest. I used the spot meter to focus on trunk in the shade and then re-exposed the brighter parts in PS. I did this in an attempt to elliminate the fake shadows look I get when I use the shadow / highlight tool in PS. Does this image look real? I hope I'm getting closer to solving my difficulty in exposing dark and light in a photograph. The tree is 58m high by the way.


Details:- 12mm ISO 200 1/80th f/9 Hoya CPL fitted.

[phillipb]

Interesting perspective and an interesting looking tree, although I think the straight line from the jet detracts slightly from the picture. Maybe if the plane itself was prominent in the photo, but that's only my opinion.
Nice shot.

[MHD]

I have to agree with Phillip....

while some may like it I find it to geometric in this organic work

[sirhc55]

Matty B - I agree the contrail is a distraction but my main observation is that the whole pic looks a little washed out i.e. no contrast

[Mal]

Very nice, I was looking at this lens today and it is really nice ot see a great shot taken with one. I must also agree with the others about the straight line made by the jet. My eyes were drawn to the straight line, which distracts from the perspective.

[Matty B]

Thanks for the comments all. Chris, I do see your point re: contrast. It does loose a little in translation from TIFF to upload JPEG. I might re: work the upload file a bit more in that area. I took another exposure without the jet-stream but the difts of clouds were not as pronounced.
I tried to get just a glimpse of direct sun rays through the boughs of the tree - this may have, in hindsight, been a mistake re: correct exposure?

Thanks for looking.

Cheers

[Matty B]

Ok Contrast value upped + 10 in PS.

[onimod]

that is a combination of two exposures isn't it?

[Matty B]

It's a single exposure onimod. I used the dot spot meter right on the underneath of the branch protruding from the trunk next to where the sun is just peeping through. It exposed the sky portion of the image a little bright for which I used the selective colour > blues > add some black and it dampened the sky back to what I thought was realistic. I have tried the layer mask / double exposure proceedure without realistic results. I need a lot of tweaking and practice either way!

[onimod]

sorry Matty
It's just got that overly contrasty 'Shrek' look to me. It's almost like there's a glow around the tree.
Luv the 12-24 perspective though.

[Matty B]

No need to be sorry onimod, It's not quite as the eyes saw it I must admit. This is but one exposure in a littany of "odd" exposures I get with this camera. I'm blaming the camera (certainly not the lens!) just the lack of skill displayed by the operator! I just have to continue to practise this into the light exposure to get a system that works (or give up!)

Cheers.

[jethro]

matty if you are using PS CS go to image in your menu bar then adjustments and look for highlight/shadow and see what happens. great filter for pulling detail from shadows.