Yorkshire Sunset

[KMRennie]

Sunset yesterday evening above Settle in Yorkshire. Five minutes later and the light collapsed.
All comments welcome. Ken

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Lovely scene, pleasant color gamut, and competent post-processing.

[sdwilsonsct]

Great stuff. I like how you often use those curved walls.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Nice catch, well presented.

[justlikebeingthere]

I see it has already been mentioned but... my first thought was "nice color palette". 

[luxborealis]

Classic Yorkshire, beautifully captured.

[Paulo Bizarro]

Very good stuff.

[stamper]

All of the praise is merited.

[KMRennie]

Thanks for all the flattering comments. I used a 3 stop ND grad to keep the highlights in the sky in check. However this has left the tree branches at the top too dark. So I am presently trying to lighten them without leaving artefacts. Will post when I can.
Dry stone walls (the stones are expertly placed and require no mortar) are everywhere in Yorkshire with approximately 5000 miles of them. They are also used throughout Scotland and the North of England and have been used as field boundaries back to the stone age.
Ken

[Bob_B]

+1. Just echoing the praise of others. Beautiful photo.

[KMRennie]

This is my "better" version. I am still not terribly happy with some of the boughs and branches but I need to stop sometime.

Ken

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

This is my "better" version. I am still not terribly happy with some of the boughs and branches but I need to stop sometime.

You could have left it as-as just as well. You see, when we look at relatively distant branches against a bright sky, we tend to perceive them as silhouettes anyway. It is a bit different for the foreground in front of our feet, as our eyes/bran adjust instantly to the low light as we look down. As soon as we raise the sight toward the bright sky, things that are in front of the sky slightly further away and in the distance are perceived as progressively darker.

[MattBurt]

Love it! The branches do not bother me one bit. Really nice work.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Perhaps Ken's concern is that very dark branches are high contrast against a light sky, and that high-contrast draws attention away from more important elements of the picture.

That is a fair observation and indeed a possibility.

In this particular case, I find that the lighter branches now contain detail and because of that the tree becomes the main point of focus, overwhelming the rest of the image. With darker branches, I know there is not much to look at there and continue exploring the rest. And the rest is indeed what the picture is all about.

Just to be sure, I am explaining my viewing experience and my reaction. It is certainly up to Ken to determine where the emphasis should be.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Old issue, thumbnails are not color managed. Though, on my iPad right now, they do look the same.

[Jens Peermann]

Wonderful light and a pleasant composition.

[KMRennie]

My first attempt at processing this image left my eyes going to the middle of the tree, just above the wall and below the skyline, where a large amount of almost black just grabbed my attention. Once seen I could not concentrate on the rest of the image. My attempt at lifting the darker branches was very ham fisted and resulted in many of the branches becoming too bright and, as Slobodan pointed out, starting to become the focal point of the image not the sunset glow illuminated foreground limestone pavement which was the subject of the photograph the tree being an added bonus. I have spent a little time working on the image and am now happy with it. Whether it is an improvement to everyone's eyes only they can tell but I am happy with it. I have removed a bright patch in the trees and darkened the light "haze" above the trees that looked like a halo from poor processing but was one of Nature's artefacts. Once again thanks to everyone for their comments they have made me think. All comments more tha welcome.
Ken