Christmas Tree

[Round Tuit]

I took this picture of my neighbor's decorated tree last night. It had snowed all day and I liked the soft glow of the lights showing through the snow on the branches.

I made two versions and am not truly satisfied with either. The first one doesn't capture the darkness of the night very well but shows the snowy tree to advantage. The second one is a better depiction of the night scene in my opinion but the tree becomes too dark and contrasty.

#1


#2


I am at a bit of a loss on how to process the photo and would appreciate any suggestions you might be willing to offer.

André

P.S. I will clone out the partial starburst on the right of the picture.

[Dave A]

My preference is #1 because the snow on the tree stands out more. If mine I would crop the right side left just past the light over the garage. Overall I like the image.

Dave

[bje07]

I prefer # 1 but what gets me wrong is the gray snow on the fir tree, difficult to modify because it is in the shade

[bnnrcn]

Hi Andre If the image was mine I would add a slight purplish color cast to the original image as the grey colored snow on the trees doesn't look very nice. If the snow on the ground doesn't look nice with the color cast you can brush it out anyway.

[mugge]

Andre, I prefer #1. There are some nice starlight effects HHS that I like. Just a thought.
Cheers Ole

[Round Tuit]

Thank you all for your inputs.

I will be away for the next few days but will reprocess this shot when I get back.

André

[Round Tuit]

I have taken a fresh look at these photos and tried to incorporate the edits that were suggested. To my surprise, cropping the garage on the right side did not work. It somehow unbalanced the composition. I shifted the white balance toward the blue and brightened the tree considerably. This is the result:

#3


I have reached the conclusion that there is something fundamentally wrong with the composition and that no amount of tinkering will turn it into a "wall hanger". I will need to figure that out to avoid making the same mistake in the future.

Comments are always welcomed.

André

[Wavelength]

I like #1 and #3 very well

[bnnrcn]

Your edit works better Andre I think the tree is covering a huge space in the frame and it is also very close to the bottom and left frames . May be that's why the composition doesn't work . If I were you, next time, I would either try a composition with more environment or have only a nice Christmas tree covering the whole frame.