Sundown - Kalalau Valley

Fill flash used for the foreground, but I toned it down a bit so s

not to compete with the background too much. Too bright or too

dark? The original, brighter version included. Thanks for your

thoughts.

This was the original foreground exposure.

Harry, lovely image but the white balance of the tree and background do not mach. Did you shoot with flash.

I think it works, the green against the tones of the blue sky has an appeal, on the other hand were is the one without the flash, thats the side by side I want to see! Don't tell me you did'nt take one without the flash, what are you going to do if that tree fell over! I wanted to photograph a very detailed little barn that is down a small valley right off the road, I was in that area the other day with my camera beautiful blue sky, the barn was gone it had burned to the ground!

Hola Harry, esta foto es fantastica, felicidades. Joaquin. ( Spain ).

The power of the flash on the foreground tree is a little bit too high for my taste.

 

Best Regards

John - I did take a shot without flash, but the result was poor. Too much of the image was off the histogram detailess black - hard to tell what the foliage was. I had thoughts of letting the tree go black, but I lost a lot of the valley and sense of height. Because of the precarious position I was in to take the shot, I couldn't take foreground exposure, then background exposure and combine them later - I had to lean on my tripod while holding onto small trees -not recommended. The flash allowed a faster shutter speed and minimized the likelihood of camera shake for a longer exposure for the foreground.

 

Antonius - I agree that the white blance of the tree and the background do not match and the use of flash is too evident. It's difficult to strike a balance, since objects in the shade tend to be "bluer" and not as warm as the area hit by the setting sun. I'll try and slightly warm up the foreground and see if that helps.

 

Thanks for all of the feedback.

I definitely prefer the 'toned down' version, I think you could bring it down even a little more. Some select warming on the fg would help bring them to a closer balance. The sky looks a little gray - I would be tempted to 'clear' it up a little but brightening it, and maybe selectively increasing the saturation in the sky, just a thought - I don't know what it actually looked like of course!

I can bring down the fg a bit more. The fog, msit and clouds coming off the ocean created that zone of haze near the ocean an diffused some of the color. Perhaps a bit of selective contrast would help that area. Thanks for the ideas.

Harry, I like the darker one better. It has more of a 3-d feel to it, especially in the leaves at the top of the tree. Great idea using the tree to fill an otherwise bland sky. Bottom of the tree is a little messy but doesn't take away from the overall look of the photo. Great Job! Dean

Thanks Dean - The darker version it is! The other thing that bothers me about the image, now that I have had a chance to look back, is the the tree isn't emerging from foliage near the base. The trunk is just stuck there, like the foliage aroung it had been chopped away. I had to climb through some bush to get at the tree, and then I took up the place where vegetion would normally have been in front of the tree. It now looks a little unatural to me.

Beautiful classic, tasteful!