Monochrome?

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Went out yesterday to get a similar image to the one I posted here a few days ago, as no one commented on the previous image, which I must assume meant it went down like a lead balloon and was a total thumbs down from everyone. So in an effort to rectify that failure, here is another (monochrome) version of the same scene taken yesterday morning.

CC's welcome.

Dave

[Jeremy Roussak]

The scene's good, the sky's good but the tree just doesn't work. It doesn't stand out sufficiently from the background. A lower perspective, which enables the upper branches to appear against the sky, might be better.

Jeremy

[WalterEG]

What he ^^^^^ said but I do like the tonality.

Cheers,

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... as no one commented on the previous image, which I must assume meant it went down like a lead balloon and was a total thumbs down from everyone...

I remember it. Wasn't so bad. Actually, not bad at all, kind of lovely. But the reason I did not comment on it is that it is also a kind of... standard fare. For us accustomed to UK landscapes it looked... well, standard. Which, by itself does not motivate me enough to comment. Had it come from a newbie, I might have said: "good job", but you do not get it that easy .

Yes, I was bothered by the blending of the tree into its environment too, but even that did not provoke me enough to nitpick, as you sincerely admitted it was a grab shot, "while the engine was still running", and I sympathized with you. I know what it is like when the whole family starts yelling "are you done yet?"

[Rob C]

I can't see you could improve the tree-against-sky factor from that spot; all you'd have done is kill the right-hand limit of the water if you'd dropped your height, and that limit is important in the scheme of things. How about doing a terrible, cheap, modern photographic trick: keep the mono except for the tree? No, perhaps best not to do so.

Rob C

[wolfnowl]

I think it's a fine shot too, but would like to see more contrast between tree and background.  Without knowing what the colours of the hills are, could you vary the hue or luminance to make the separation greater? Unless it was shot with B&W film, which might make that a bit more challenging. Or you could try ALMOST desaturating and see what effect that yields.

Mike.

[ivan muller]

hi Dave, at first glance its a good image , the textures, clouds and contrast.... but then on reflection its starts to lose its initial excitement and the flaws become obvious. The tree disappears into the background, the big space on left becomes less interesting and the overall balance doesn't look so balanced anymore...I cant quite say how I would fix it nor shoot it, but all the ingredients are there for a good image...somehow one has to separate the tree from the background, maybe a much lower viewpoint but then of course everything will change.... but that is just my personal opinion and I think someone like Terry is much more qualified than me to answer....

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

I remember it. Wasn't so bad. Actually, not bad at all, kind of lovely. But the reason I did not comment on it is that it is also a kind of... standard fare. For us accustomed to UK landscapes it looked... well, standard. Which, by itself does not motivate me enough to comment. Had it come from a newbie, I might have said: "good job", but you do not get it that easy .

Yes, I must admit I was bothered by the blending of the tree into its environment too, but even that did not provoke me enough to nitpick, as you sincerely admitted it was a grab shot, "while the engine was still running", and I sympathized with you. I know what it is like when the whole family starts yelling "are you done yet?"

Ah so you did have a sneaky peek Slobodan

Yes I know what you are all saying about the tree and separation from the mountains and how it is a problem, hence the B&W conversion I suppose to try and kick some life into it. I have already been back several times, dawn, dusk, midday etc. I have shot it with a wide angle, moderate zoom, from a high point of view and from a very low point of view crawling in the mud - I highly recommend those elasticated knee pads that builders use for this purpose, really cheap, nicely padded and waterproof - but I am just not hitting the mark, it's always a nearly but not quite image, and the reason why I think this is the case, is that the tree is indeed a similar colour to the mountains in the background and the sun rises straight behind me, so making the scene fully front lit and flat. So I have decided to leave it until the leaves on the tree start to bud in spring, which will hopefully add some contrasting colour to the scene, and also the sun will have moved south, to be then rising more to my left - so thanks everyone, this is one I will store for the future. Oh and I suppose another reason why it may not be firing anyone up, could be because it is something of a well worn cliché isn't it? I mean, a single gnarly tree set against snow capped mountains, we must have all seen enough images of this ilk to make our eyeballs ready to roll out of their sockets and bounce around on the floor...  

all the best and thanks for the CC's, I was beginning to think you had all fallen out with me or something

Dave

[jalcocer]

Really nice tones and elements, the only thing I would change is the tree, like other member said it's kind of lost in everything, took me a bit to notice it was there, other than that it's an incredible picture, specially love the mountains and the clouds.

[feethea]

+1 from me - with the caveat re the tree/background issue that most people have referred to.

Barry