The Forest Path

Not bad. I'm no expert, but I might have printed for a bit more contrast - made the foreground trees a touch darker.

I was thinking along the same line. In fact I have tried it and agree that increased contrast is better. That is, unless John deliberately wanted to provide us with a representation of what it is like to be in the forest, at a time when the early morning fog hasn't lifted. It certainly is a very atmospheric piece and I can really relate to this.

Nice shot. I like it.

 

First, the problems, which are few: I'd crop it just a wee bit more. It's nearly square, and the bits of very dark twigs on the upper right and upper left are distracting due to their blackness. I'd go ahead and trim it square, cropping just inside those twigs.

 

I think the contrast is fine. A larger image, not what we're looking at here, would have enough pure black in the little tiny areas of the foreground to give us the proper idea of contrast. As the picture recedes, the contrast will of course weaken, so I feel that judging the level of contrast based on objects further back in the image might be holding the range to a standard that won't look good on paper, although it might look ok on screen. I swept through John's scrint with the eyedropper and caught some 0,0,0 pixels in the detail, as well as a lot of 255's in the bright area, so we've got a full range.

 

Then again, this is a 35mm negative, and from Bob's comment on Jacob's Laddder, there might not be a lot of fine detail here to work with.

 

oh, whatever. I like the primordial feel of this photo. I've attached my crop, for what it's worth, and I'll just leave off with a common Photo.net comment:

 

Wonderful contrast and tones.

By the way, I've taken a couple of PS courses, nothing fancy, just the basics in scanning and contrast adjustments, but in every one the instructors were insistent on never using the contrast/brightness adjustment. It's easy, and quick, and excellent for making a quick point, but it's the least suited for fine control. In the crop I loaded, above, I used the levels adjustment and just nudged the left slider, which affects only the dark pixels. Not that it needed it, but that's what I did.

Working with the histogram is always better, but that is exactly what I had in mind, making a quick point...

it's busy, but it does work. contrast adj was right on.

Beautiful, full of mood. I wouldn't change a single thing. I especially like the slight mist which gives a sense if mystery: what will happen if we pass between those two trunks.

I like it as it is.Any change in contrast destroys the misty primaeval atmosphere.BTW I really envy your fantastic locations,you seem to have the most varied & beautiful landscape to work in.Do you need an assistant?!!!I will be visiting Oz next year & I'm seriously considering a side trip to Tasmania

Tasmania has a richer variety of landscapes, accessible wild places and things to do than anywhere else in Australia. It won't just be a side trip. It'll be the pinnacle of your trip down under!Give me sufficient notice and I'll allocate a day to take you to one or two of the most beautiful places that a tourist wouldn't get to see. This forest for example, is about 40 minutes walk from the Cradle Mountain road.

Firstly, have a good browse through Tourism Tasmania's website. Then depending on how long you can allocate to Tassie, I'll happily provide some recommendations of places to stay, etc. by email. I would suggest you allocate at least a week to Tasmania.

Contact me by email to follow up. Cheers,

Contrast adjusted or not, the image has captured the mood and it certainly has potential.

If I have to be picky (just like a fine art shopper would), I would question the high contrast dark branch hanging off the top left corner, touching the edge. And, another one near the top right edge. The good thing about it is that they are pretty small in relation to the rest of the frame; thus, more easily "forgotten".

1: The contrast. I'm not keen on your adjustment Peter. The closer trees look good, but if you look thought the central trees at the ghost trees beyond you'll notice yours are blown out.

2: The crop. The issues that you guys raised are exactly the points I was grappling with prior to upload. I was concerned about the dark branch at top left in particular, so it's not surprising that several of you want it out. Arthur, look at Doug's crop. It's basically as per your suggestion, and I think that's pretty close to ideal for this one.

During Saturday night's darkroom session, my friend Matt borrowed my 80mm lens to print a 6x7 neg on his enlarger, which left me with only a 50mm enlarging lens. I flipped back through my small folder of 35mm negs and chose this one, previously unprinted from the Misty Myrtles shoot nearly two years ago. I quite like it.

Thanks everyone.

I love it when the image captures that ancient feeling, as this certainly does. I wonder if it is more about the photographer than the scene.

Are you implying that I'm ancient Morey? ;-)

Oooooooooooh...

This IS a picture. Congrats

 

Yogi

Beautifull image, John! I like it the way it is, concerning the contrast! It's smooth!AS to the branch on left upper corner, perhaps I would dodge it a bit, just to soften it!

John, I stand corrected. Probably was a stupid idea to very quickly use contrast and brightness controls to tweak your image. Yes, the highlights are blown out in my version and that probably confirms the views that Doug posted immediately after my attempt to improve on your original.

I've decided to go with Peter's 'misty primaeval atmosphere', rather than Morey's 'ancient feeling'. I know for a fact, that you are not ancient! ;-)

The corrected in contrast version is something totally different, nor better neither worst, just different. But I keep on this one, you can "feel" the atmosphere here...

Beautiful Photo!

I was fortunate enough to vist Tasmania (and Cradle Mountain)this past March and this is just a hint of what can be found. It is a photographers dream.

This one gives me goose bumps... wow!

 

The image is simply fantastic John. The tonal range you have here is, to me, exactly right. The tonality you've gotten here is something I've been groping with for a year in Photoshop and still haven't managed to figure out yet. Doug's cropping suggestion is certainly a sound one but your crop as is doesn't offer big problems to me. Tremendous work.

Andy I'm hopeless with photoshop. That's why I built a darkroom! :-)

 

Cheers,

A beautiful range of misty tones. Perhaps because of the relatively low contrast my eye seems to search for some slight sepia toning to warm it, but that might lead to a pea-souper look that would not be very attractive, so on reflection I've concluded that I like it the way it is.

I like the composition and the feeling this image portrays. The tones are subtle and not overstated, which gives the early morning mist a feeling of cold, crisp air. I like it just the way it is, but thats my preference.

Beautiful. Excellent tones, Very nice image