Hello all!
I've been patiently waiting for the appropriate photograph to post on the forum. I do not feel that the photo you see here is my best work. I do believe it is an appropriate photo for me to learn from in terms of composition and processing.
The photo was taken on the road that leads up to Crawford Lake near Milton, Ontario. I had gone for a ride to scout for locations and came across this scene, and made a note of it. I came back on an clear evening with textured clouds to provide some interest in the horizon. I waited for the sunlight to illuminate the central tree as it poured over the field from the left, scattering through the leftmost trees and brush.
Since I only took my 50mm with me (on a crop sensor K5 body), the photo you see here is a two photo composite so I could include enough of the sky to please me. My GND had not arrived yet, so I exposed the sky and the field separately.
Processing began in LR3.5 and involved some gentle touches of clarity, a (very gentle) dose of luminance, and some push to the greens and yellows.
In Photoshop, I stitched the photos together, duplicated, inverted and changed the layer blending to vivid light. I then ran a surface blur on the layer with both variables within set at 32.
When that is finished, I hit [Shift][Option][Command][E] to duplicate the layer and change the blend mode to normal. I delete the original since it's blend mode is stuck at vivid light. On the newly duplicated layer, I changed the blend mode to Overlay and reduced the opacity to around 30%.
I then dodged and burned to aid the composition to my liking, and finished with an unsharp mask to my taste.
I chose this composition because to my eye, the path is as follows:
The sky draws the eye first. Attention then proceeds to the sunlight leaking out of the left frame, which follows the lighted pathway on the field to the sunlit tree. The bank of darker trees in the field to the right create visual line which leads the eye back to the sunlit tree. The eye follows the sunlit path to the darker portion of the composition on the bottom, which leads the viewer (hopefully) back to the sunlight leak and to the sky.
Since I am very much am amateur, I am looking for critiques on my process and composition. I look forward to more contemplative contributions to this forum.