Utah juniper at Park Avenue - Arches National Park - Utah

Nice composition and lighting. Love the detail in the juniper. I wonder if darkening it slightly would help bring out even more details.

Thanks Tom... The detail in the juniper is due to HDR, and I actually lightened it a bit in Photoshop to help with detail. I'll give it another look - see if darkening will help.

-Len

Originally Posted by bristlecone Thanks Tom... The detail in the juniper is due to HDR, and I actually lightened it a bit in Photoshop to help with detail. I'll give it another look - see if darkening will help. -Len

Len,
My experience with HDR is that it generates so much contrast that your eye gets lost and doesn't know where to look. I've found I have to dodge and burn areas and adjust contrast to draw the viewers eye to the spots I want them to look and help them move through the picture.

Really nice. A great color combo and wonderful depth, with a very good 3 dimensional feel.

Phil

Thanks Phil

Nice composition and great sky, bristlecone. Great start on the shot but I agree it needs a bit of finishing. Typical of HDR tools, the entire tonal range of the shot is compressed into the mid range of the histogram. That leaves the image pretty flat. HDRs almost always need finishing in an imaged editor. If you bump the blackpoint and apply an S curve, this image really pops.

Originally Posted by kdog Nice composition and great sky, bristlecone. Great start on the shot but I agree it needs a bit of finishing. Typical of HDR tools, the entire tonal range of the shot is compressed into the mid range of the histogram. That leaves the image pretty flat. HDRs almost always need finishing in an imaged editor. If you bump the blackpoint and apply an S curve, this image really pops.

Thanks Kdog.... you are right about the flatness..... here is a revised image with a curve applied and the blacks bumped up. Thanks, it does look better.

The revised image is very good, particularly for an HDR. The conditions don't look as if you would have needed an HDR, but I'm guessing the ground was dark.

Originally Posted by Cornflake The revised image is very good, particularly for an HDR. The conditions don't look as if you would have needed an HDR, but I'm guessing the ground was dark.

I used HDR for this image because elements within the juniper were very dark, and the foreground was in cloud shadow. Thanks for the input, it's always appreciated.

very nice composition, but i don't think i would have gone full HDR on this one. the result looks a bit flat, like the shadows necessary to convey depth are missing. perhaps a selective use of the shadow/highlights tool, or a very light touch with ReDynaMix in the foreground areas would work...

Really like the revision Len.
Love the gun sight formation in the center of the image