A tree..

...and again superb!

A technical critique or a personal one?

If personal – I like the contrast between the green hills and the washed out skyline…..the light and shades add an extra visual appeal.

It works very nicely, Caroline.

Wow! a great image, love the light & composition. The hills behind work well to, adding to the layers in this image…......well done!

WOW! Very nice shot Caroline! I love the lighting and the shadow of the tree… very nice!

oh.. i’m sorry… lol I wouldn’t be able to find anything wrong with it anyways ;)

great lighting and tones, gorgeous composition too!

only thing i would do is remove some shadowing from the right hand side, it looks good dark just not TOO dark.. :)

Someone buy this lady photoshop….

what software do you have? you could even try cropping the right hand side by an inch where the major shadowing is?

also – if you did a general shadow removal on the whole image i dont think it would make that much difference to the rest of the image but it would make a lot to the right corner. another way i would try is to use a semi transparent white gradient on the right to add a bit of glow x

hahaha i know how frustrating it is not to have photoshop to do all the clever tricks so ive had to become inventive over the years in how i get round things!

Great work!

just beautiful-love the contrast between foreground the the b/g!

I think this is beautiful Caroline!! I love the contours of the land, the shadows and the wonderful depth…

excellent work

You asked for critique, and I answered in the Critique forum, but I will also post it here, for others to read.

Ok.
Firstly, let me tell you what I like about this shot.
I think your composition works very nicely. There is a wonderful light and colour gradient from top left to bottom right. The tree balances the brighter left hand side, and gives the image presence. The tracks meandering across the hill faces give the eye something to follow – to a horizon lost in the sun. The tones are very nice.

I do not find the blown sky detracting from the photo – and that is unusual.

To answer your question, let me split it into parts.

1
When shooting landscapes, it is always wise to carry a good circular polariser with you in your kit. These things can save you from boring or glaring skies at times, depending on the direction you are shooting. In this particular case, it probably would not have helped a great deal though. There is a vast difference in dynamic range from bottom right to the sky, and no camera will capture that range entirely. It would, however, have helped a little, particularly because you were pointing at almost right angles to the sun – that is where they work best.

2
A neutral density graduated filter is what you needed – and coupled with the above, would have been the best choice given the circumstance. GND filters graduate from light to dark. Circular ones screw into your lens front, and can be rotated to suit the horizon. There are ‘soft’ ones and ‘hard’ ones – which differentiates how quickly the graduation (light to dark intensity) transits. For this shot, a ‘soft’ graduation is what you needed. Effectively, what this filter will do, is stop down the bright sky, while leaving the dark foreground clear. Of course, with all landscapes, a tripod is almost essential.

3
Bracketing.
Your third option would have been to bracket your exposures. Your camera has this function, and can be set to take a series of shots, automatically adjusting exposure for the series. The usual prosumer digital camera has the ability to capture automatically 3 exposures spaced 6 strops of light apart from darkest to lightest. A tripod is essential. You would then have captured the entire dynamic range in the scene, and would have had the option of combining the images in post production to bring the range into correct exposure.
Photomatix is a good program to do this with, and i know you have it. just be careful not to turn a beautiful landscape into a comical cartoony disaster…

4
I realize you say you do not have Photoshop. Some kind of editing program is pretty much essential to perform minor tweaks hen you shot artistically from day to day. That, or revisiting the site and shooting over – your choice :)
Now, there are many programs out there that will give you the ability to edit a photo. Gimp is free software that does most of what Photoshop does. Research and you will find more.
As an extreme measure, using a program such as these will give you the ability to ‘exchange’ the sky for something you prefer. But let me say, personally, I kinda despise this solution….

Finally – I really like this photo, despite any technical flaws, and think you should leave it as it is, because it’s beautiful :)

Do I experiment and tweak, or challenge myself to the craft…..?

It never hurts to do both.
Knowledge is powa.

Most definitely.

Thanks for everyone’s comments on this ..

And take a look at Mark’s advice …worthy stuff :)

Cas this is beautiful. Well done :))

this shot works a treat Caroline, Mark is right never hurts to do both, never be a slave to anything ,just know when to use what, and determine what calls for what treatment .

Perfect, amazing view

Great composition, lovely colour.

Nice composition and love the shadow and dark greens..

I love this image’s feel – is gives me a sense of I’ve got all the time in the world feel about it.

Yes I did – and I think I left before the beer had its destined effects (according to the posts today).

Hi again Caroline - another shot that really hits me – I like Mark’s comments – esp the last of leave it like it is as it is beautiful - how great to get feedback like he gave you - the background hills really do it for me - dave

Love this shot….......the tree really makes it happen.

i love this lonely tree, excellent work!

Just beautiful!!

Beautiful light and composition.

Wonderful image, well done!

Excellent shot, great composition and the lighting is fabulous!! Amazing piece of work. Very well done.
Brendan

wonderful composition Caroline, teriffic work!

I should have yo on my watchlist.. sometimes I’m such a dolt. Your work is lovely!

Great capture, love the composition and colours!

This is lovely and I find that the sky adds to the contrast with the dark green hills. Wonderful play of light and shadow and great tree silhouette!

Fantastic. Instant fav.

A stunning image Caroline..the colours and composition are alluring! :)

Woooow….This is awesome.. I love this image.simply captivating.
Great work – Peter

it is not only the tree … wonderful!

vraiment superbe,j aime énormément cette photo,cela ce voit vous aimez la nature

STUNNING

The simplicity of the scene is very striking. I love the contrast between the bold foreground and faded background.

Fantastic shot, very rarely visible to the naked eye

very nice!!

superb composition – if I could add a little to Mark’s comment above. the things he suggests (except HDR) could be done successfully to a significant degree in subsequent editing quite easily in Adobe Lightroom (it has graduated filters). There’s a 30 day trial, so if you haven’t tried it out then it is worth experimenting with – I find it to be an irreplaceable part of my workflow. It’s a great shot, though, anyway!

sorry, that wasn’t very polite of me … :(

Excellent image

Beautiful image .

Hell yeah, what a great image, it’s absolutely stunning.

10-20 Sigma lens by any chance? lol

No no no no no . . . will you EVER say yes to me? LOL

Hey, Buggerlugs . . . . I know all about Girls and their way of thinking . . . yes means no, and no means maybe

Is this right?

can’t wait to see the reply to this one :-)