Tjon Loc: Wash DC

Feel free to CC...

The Color of Trees

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Sorry, but, I saw this as a picture within a picture requiring major cropping and a redirection of point of interest:

Nightski

Your colors are beautiful, Tjon, but I think you've got some composition problems. There is no real clear subject. You have lots of unorganized elements. The three bright trees would have been an excellent subject, but they are out of focus, and it would not be possible to fix that in post. I really think this is a case where you need to go back and try different angles. Decide what your subject is and move in closer to it. Decide where you want your subject to be in the frame. Use the river as a leading line in your photo. Lots could be done with this. :-)

CajonPhotog Loc: Shreveport, LA

I love the "pop" in your picture, but to a certain extent I must agree with the others. There is a lack of a definite subject matter. I would like to see more of the pond and ducks in the picture. My feeling is that if you move around to your left some, get a little less sky and a little more pond and ducks, you would also have the bright red trees and the reeds in the pond as subject matter also. Great color on this one.

Heirloom Tomato Loc: Oregon

Hi Tjon. I made a different picture-within-a-picture. What do you think?

I cropped it, and removed some distracting elements from the water and the grass.

CajonPhotog Loc: Shreveport, LA

I meant move to the RIGHT, not left.

Tjon Loc: Wash DC

Not for the sake of being argumentive, but for my own future reference in a landscape composition, does a shot always have to have one object as a definite subject matter? I saw the whole line of colored trees (from bright to dark) as my definite subject matter, and used the darkening in the clouds and water reeds for demension. Does this make sense, I'm a idiot at times, thinking outside the box?...lol

Nightski

Tjon, you're definitely not an idiot. You just need some organization in your photo. Something that grabs the viewers interest. Something that leads the eyes to your subject.

Here is a link to tree photography. While these images are rather grandiose, it still helps to see how they made use of light, and leading lines. There are some possible leading lines in your photo. Maybe you would want to get there at the time of day when the sun is coming through the colors.

http://digital-photography-school.com/21-impressive-tree-images

Look how many times I've been back to my swamp, and I still haven't got a "you nailed it!" from the gang. Hang in there. Keep trying and have fun doing it. That's what it's all about.

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

Hi, Tijon...beautiful image!

This interesting image contains several options permitting sevral crop-dependant compositions. The most simple, to my eye, may be the most effective. Crop the sky close to the top of the tallest tree, giving the image a panorama format. Alhough most panoramas depend on the simple trope of guiding the eye across the span of the image, an image such as his one, with a definite and effective depth cue permits...or demands (?) a composition that carries the eye into, across, and back out of the depth that is there, instead of making it meander within the image's vertical two dimensions.

Being of the Western Cultural bent, my eye starts at the left end at the three flaming maple trees, thence across the background appreciating the "Colors of Trees" as suggested by the title. When it reaches he imposing bronze mass of the big oak at the right end my eye is pulled to the forefront... to the clump/island of reeds, thence back to the magnetic maples! In this manner the depth of the image encourages a plane of composition perpendicular to that of compositional paths we more often exprience and which is encouraged by the pano format.

Dave in SD

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Thinking outside the box does not make you an idiot. As a matter-of-fact, I seen nothing in your post that gives any such indication. I think your photo had too much subject matter, a situation old fogies like me refer to as "too busy." That does not make me right nor does it make you wrong. It means we looked at the picture in two different but valid ways. You need to be confident in the fact that a different approach does not make your initial effort invalid. We saw something different, but your explanation of what you saw is the original point of view from which I and others took our cues. If you had not made a good start, this post would have been ignored. You initiated a meaningful exchange of ideas. Idiots can't do that.

BrettOssman Loc: near Tampa, Florida

A couple of my thoughts:

First, those colors are AWESOME. :-)

More space on the left and right. Bring the trees in some. Maybe more pond space in front of the "bush" in the pond. I think these hug the edge too much. Crop the sky way down, unless you can get more detail out of it.

Another angle. Can you get to the left and shoot down the pond line, like this angle ---->. The pond line and orange trees can be a leading line to something on the right?

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I really ike the crop that Heirloom Tomato did. It's the sky in the original post that is distracting. So getting rid of that makes a lot of sense. I do like the pond in the foreground. I think it helps to "ground" the trees in their location. I don't download the images becaues I have a really slow connection, so I can't tell what's in focus and what's not. I think if the brilliant trees aren't in focus, then perhaps a redo would be required. They ARE the focal point simply because of their bright/light color.

Nightski

Tjon, I know I was tough on this pic of yours. It was a hard thing to do, because you know I like you. I have liked many of the images that you have posted, and I have always been honest.

When you do go back and nail this shot, and I say, "Tjon, you nailed it!", you will know that I am excited for you, and that I really mean it. Honesty is hard, but it's what you give to people you care about.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

I have to disagree with almost everyone else here, and say that I like the original. The expanse of sky above the trees turns it from a picture of trees, into a landscape. It gives the photo 'depth', in my mind at least.

Most here are much better critics than I am, of course. To quote the old axiom, I just know what I like!

BrettOssman Loc: near Tampa, Florida

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