Landscape: Green on Grey

[Krawuntzel]

Hi
as a newcomer to this forum I would welcome to receive (any!) comments on this shot I took some years ago.
No tripod, no whatsoever ... just pressing the shutter.
I always have the feel-seeing that re-sizing this image (to the web, to the printer, to whatelse...) is deteriorating from the original. This is a field I will have to learn a lot
Anyway C&C
Erwin

[Shadowman]

Nice artistic look to the image, very flat look but it works for this image.

[Manfred M]

Hi Erwin - I'm going to move this thread over to Nature and Architecture, which is where it really belongs.

While I'm typing, I might as well comment on the image.

At first blush, it's an interesting shot. The tree draws our eyes into the image and as we look down it we see the kudu and impalas (at least that's what they look like to me). The green tree stands out rather nicely against the dry grasses of what I assume to be the African winter. Normally, I might wonder about the tree being more or less centred in the shot, but here it works well.

[NorthernFocus]

Welcome to CIC, Erwin.

The contrast works well both from a standdpoint of color as well as wet/living vs parched/dormant. Not having the horizon in the image helps isolate it IMO. One living tree in all the world sort of thing. Artistically one can argue either way regarding centered vs offset placement of the primary element in the frame.

Regarding the re-sizing, indeed many images translate better/worse to different formats. I suspect this particular image would look best printed/displayed in a large format.

[IzzieK]

Worth hanging on a wall somewhere...Beautiful shot. I thought too that the main subject is too centred but with the animals there that forms the scale of the shot, it is negligible.

[Krawuntzel]

Izzie, Dan, Manfred, Jon thank you for the comments.
Excuse me to have uploaded the picture in the wrong category ; I am still learning to use this forum.
As to the picture : Flatness is due to a long lens (eq. 450mm) ; no possibility to go near, as the picture was taken in Ruaha National Parc (Tanzania) near the end of the dry season. To « put » the tree to the left or right did not work – and I have a big print hanging on my wall
Erwin

[IzzieK]

........... – and I have a big print hanging on my wall
Erwin

Good for you! I love this shot very much...

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Erwin,

Nice shot, but it would be better if seen bigger here - you could downsize to 932 x 1400, twice the 466 x 700 you uploaded.

If it were mine, there are a few techniques I might try to give improved separation of the subjects from the background; selective* contrast enhancement, sharpening, colour gains, perhaps even some slight blurring of background. The small image size and post downsize sharpening has vastly expanded the effective DoF I am seeing, on a larger version, these issues may not be as dominant as I am seeing now.

* I say selective because the surrounding grasses and distant trees do not need further emphasis, just the main tree and the animals below it.

I won't go into more detail without knowing your software and level of expertise - that said; the EXIF data shows it was shot with a Minolta lens on a Sony A700, in Shutter priority AE, 1/640 sec, f/4, ISO 100 and edited using "Photo Ninja" and GIMP - niether of which I know anything about!

Welcome to the CiC forums, Dave

[Krawuntzel]

Hi Erwin,

Nice shot, but it would be better if seen bigger here - you could downsize to 932 x 1400, twice the 466 x 700 you uploaded.

If it were mine, there are a few techniques I might try to give improved separation of the subjects from the background; selective* contrast enhancement, sharpening, colour gains, perhaps even some slight blurring of background. The small image size and post downsize sharpening has vastly expanded the effective DoF I am seeing, on a larger version, these issues may not be as dominant as I am seeing now.

* I say selective because the surrounding grasses and distant trees do not need further emphasis, just the main tree and the animals below it.

I won't go into more detail without knowing your software and level of expertise - that said; the EXIF data shows it was shot with a Minolta lens on a Sony A700, in Shutter priority AE, 1/640 sec, f/4, ISO 100 and edited using "Photo Ninja" and GIMP - niether of which I know anything about!

Welcome to the CiC forums, Dave

Thank you Dave for the comment and the suggestions
I think that your proposals refer to Photoshop which I do not use. In my job Adobe irritates me once a week with their licence policies - to say the least.
However, I will try to translate your suggestions to Photo Ninja (very good raw converter) and GIMP (open source image manipulation program)
best wishes, Erwin

[jcuknz]

To me it is a 'mug shot' of a tree so therefore the central placement is justified and it has the additional interest of the wild life.

[IzzieK]

Thanks Erwin for mentioning Photo Ninja. I will look into it since it says it works with Photoshop CS5. Have you been using this program very long? Do you know if it will accept RAW files from a Nikon D810? Just asking...

[Wavelength]

Excellent image.... really a wildlife stuff

[selig1656]

Nice subject matter , yes seems to be lacking DOF, however as you said , the 450 mm will do that. Personal referrence would to offset a little to the left. All in all very well done.

[Krawuntzel]

Thank you Nandakumar, Raymond, Dave, John for the comments.

Hello Izzie
I use PhotoNinja since january 2013; it is from the same company that developed Noise Ninja.
As far as I know it will work with Nikon D810/810E and as a "plugin" to Photoshop substituting the Adobe Raw Converter module.
Erwin

[mknittle]

Very nice Erwin,

[Signguy Gary]

I love the character of the tree. Nice shot