Tree against the sky

[Greg McCary]

I took this picture late this afternoon as a rain was breaking up. What I need help with is the post processing, All I really did was a crop, levels adjustment and sharpened it slightly. Does this look ok or overprocessed? I shot the with a 80mm-150mm lens about 3/4 full....
Greg

[jbaldocchi]

It looks good to me. Ultamitly the less you have to alter the original the better.

Jim B.

[Greg McCary]

Thanks Jim,
It's nice to have a second set of eyes. I am working with a new camera and monitor.
Greg

[dese]

Nice photo, I like the color

[starriderrick]

I like this as is.Great moody feel.

[gahspidy]

Good composition, Greg. It would have been even better without the bush under the tree. There are alot of compression artifacts in this picture. You may not have resized this for the web properly.

[PMW518]

What about some thing like this?

[Greg McCary]

Thanks Gary, I broke out the chain saw out last night. Is this better?? Iike yours as well PMW518, Thanks. I am still getting some strange bubble things on the image that are not on the original. Is it the resizing doing it, if so how should I resize it? It tried doing it all at once and then in steps? Any ideas? I am not used to dealing with files this big..
Greg

[cyberlord]

What editing program are you using?

I find that many of the free ones do not produce good results when resizing.

But then again paying several hundred dollars for an editing program doesn't seem like much of an option either.

You can try the 10% rule, adjust the size (up or down) in 10% increments. I have not tried this with the free programs and it does not seem to show much difference in the high end programs that have good resizing algorythms.

Tim

[Greg McCary]

I resized it here, does it look better?
Greg
http://www.resize2mail.com/

[trog100]

u need to resample and resize.. irfanview useing its lanczos filter will do a perfect job and its free.. when u save set the jpeg quality to max or 80%..

trog

[Greg McCary]

Thanks Trog, I will check it out...
Greg

[Ronnoco]

The tree is not strong enough to stand alone as a centre of interest. As a too often duplicated shot by many photographers, it needs something unique or different to make it stand out and without that element it fails from the point of view of composition.

Ronnoco

[Greg McCary]

Here it is with the right side cropped and a different resizeing tool. Better or worse????
Greg

[trog100]

greg take this with some humour .. but its just a tree..

i think ronnoco makes a valid point..

the tree plus the fake dramatic sky has something.. but the something is entirely fake which kinda knocks it as a photograph in my estimation..

trog

[Greg McCary]

greg take this with some humour .. but its just a tree..

i think ronnoco makes a valid point..

the tree plus the fake dramatic sky has something.. but the something is entirely fake which kinda knocks it as a photograph in my estimation..

trog

Trog I do agree with Ron that a single tree standing alone isn't a strong enough subject. And that another element or two would help. With that said, I was more conserned with the post processing than anything else. I have a new camera and monitor. You, being one that doesn't beleive in post processing should take note. Very little post processing was done to this image. A crop, levels adjustment to darken and bring out more detail in the sky and a slight sharping is all. This is not far from the out of camera image. But if you feel that the sky looks fake that answers my original question. Does it look over processed? Thanks for your vote.
Greg

[Ronnoco]

Trog I do agree with Ron that a single tree standing alone isn't a strong enough subject. And that another element or two would help. With that said, I was more conserned with the post processing than anything else. I have a new camera and monitor. You, being one that doesn't beleive in post processing should take note. Very little post processing was done to this image. A crop, levels adjustment to darken and bring out more detail in the sky and a slight sharping is all. This is not far from the out of camera image. But if you feel that the sky looks fake that answers my original question. Does it look over processed? Thanks for your vote.
Greg

It is certainly not over-processed or fake looking. Digital in general requires more post-processing than film to get the colour right, but this shot has limited potential for work in post-processing whether the original was film or digital.

Ronnoco

[mpreece]

I like the look of this picture, the colors in the sky adds to it overall, and anywhere you have placed the tree looks good IMO.

[trog100]

sorry greg i didnt mean your tree looks fake or over proccessed i was refering to the "adjusted" pic posted by someone else.. i should have made myself clearer..

out of your tree pics i prefer the first one.. your further attempts have not improved it for me..

trog