Bent Tree and Barn

[ST1]

This afternoon having looked and commented on a post of Donald's, I decided to reprocess (I had originally just carried out my usual colour PP work flow on the image)an image taken in February during a trip to New Zealand.
It was rather a dreich day when we were travelling from Motueka to Greymouth, when I spotted this scene and decided to capture the moment.
This isn't a processing approach that I'm comfortable using, probably because I don't process many of my images in B&W.

Hopefully I will get some hints and tips on how to improve my processing of this type.

#1. Original Image.



#2 Having read the feedback comments on my original posted image this is my reworked image. Hopefully I've picked up all of your suggestions.

[Geoff F]

Am I seeing some sort of fringing effect around the edges of the broken tree top? Maybe the light around the barn roof also seems a bit on the strange side?

Composition looks good to me, also focus is fine on a potentially tricky scene.

[Shadowman]

Nicely seen and captured.

[Tony M]

I agree with Geoff. Perhaps you could back-off the contrast. The trees in the distance to the left of the barn have a nice diffuse look; perhaps you could make the barn and foreground tree more diffuse to blend in with the background, rather than having them stand out.

I hope you had a memorable trip to my home country. I get back there every few years but it's been a long time since I've been down to that part of the country.

Tony

[DanK]

Nice shot in general. I also agree with Geoff, although I guessed that these are sharpening artifacts rather than contrast.

I'd also crop a tiny bit from the top and quite a bit from the bottom. The bottom area isn't interesting, and there is so much of it that it's a distraction. I'd place the bottom third line somewhere in the barn. This version might be too extreme, but it shows what I am thinking:

[ST1]

Am I seeing some sort of fringing effect around the edges of the broken tree top? Maybe the light around the barn roof also seems a bit on the strange side?

Composition looks good to me, also focus is fine on a potentially tricky scene.

Thanks Geoff I've posted an edited image following the feedback received.

[ST1]

Nicely seen and captured.

Thanks John

[ST1]

I agree with Geoff. Perhaps you could back-off the contrast. The trees in the distance to the left of the barn have a nice diffuse look; perhaps you could make the barn and foreground tree more diffuse to blend in with the background, rather than having them stand out.

I hope you had a memorable trip to my home country. I get back there every few years but it's been a long time since I've been down to that part of the country.

Tony

Tony, thanks for commenting, much appreciated. We had a brilliant time in New Zealand thank you, it's a photographers dream.

[ST1]

Nice shot in general. I also agree with Geoff, although I guessed that these are sharpening artifacts rather than contrast.

I'd also crop a tiny bit from the top and quite a bit from the bottom. The bottom area isn't interesting, and there is so much of it that it's a distraction. I'd place the bottom third line somewhere in the barn. This version might be too extreme, but it shows what I am thinking:

Thanks Dan for taking time to look and comment. I have added a reworked image to my initial post on the thread. Hopefully I've captured all of the feedback received. Thanks again.

[Geoff F]

Your edit looks better to me, Peter. A nice scene now.