I'd seen this tree in the summer months and thought I should return after snowfall. I had a difficult time printing this one. I cropped the sky as I thought i was way too bright. I am somewhat pleased with the result but feel it's lacking something. Suggestions for improvement would be appreciated.
Mike, I like the peaceful feeling of the photograph. I think the tree trunks on the far left and right of the frame box in the image a bit. Delicate burning of the areas surrounding the subject tree, perhaps with a low contrast filter, might help pop it out a bit. If the burns are feathered in from the edges, it might create a greater sense of depth.
All the best,
Daniel
I agree with Daniel, you want to get the subject tree to pop just a bit with some careful burning around the tree.You might also crop out the two trees on the left and right. They seem a bit distracting, pulling my eyes away from the subject tree. Nice quiet image.
I'm not sure I agree with the suggestion of cropping the trees at the edges of the neg - they add to the sense of this little tree being "surrounded" by the larger trees. Either approach would work, I think, but the "mood" of the image would be substantially different.
You might try split filtration, using a lower contrast for the overall exposure to bring out more detail in the trunks, dodging a bit on the central tree, and then burn-in the central tree a bit with a higher contrast to get the "pop".
Thank you all for your input. When I initially set up this shot I considered eliminating the left and right trees from the frame. however, as Ralph said, i thought including them would help emphasize the clearing.
I think I will try all of your suggestions though and see what happens. Thanks again for your help!