Edge of the forest, a photo from Hertfordshire, England

Photographer's Note

Taken at the edge of the woods that surround Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire. The photo was originally colour and very boring so I B&W'd it sharpened it, darkened it to bring out some dark shadows on the tree and then added a soft focus and a small halo to all of the light objects to produce a "dreamy" effect. I then darkened again slightly for this final result...I was trying to achieve a "Middle Earth" type photo and compared to the original this IMO is alot better.

digi-mom, danbachmann, manu_itu, Lio, flagman, weetrees has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Keitht (1342) 2004-01-12 17:35

Before I read your notes my immediate thought was that this looked like something out of Lord of the Rings !! I'm not a great fan of B&W as I have great difficulty in visualising in black and white when working myself.
This one though is a real gem. There is an enormous sense of depth created by the darker foreground and lighter background.

RandomCameraGuy (3071) 2004-01-12 17:55

Very cool concept and composition. The exposure and sharpness of the trunk in the foreground are perfect.

I like your idea for post pro I just think it's a touch heavy handed. I personally prefer to have outrageous PS effects or subtle ones. For a subject like this I think "invisible" PS effects would be best.

flip89 (3418) 2004-01-12 18:13

Wow ... not only Lord of the Rings but other childhood fairy tales with lost in the woods characters. It's spooky because of the dark in the foreground but yet hopeful because of the light in the background. This is perfect for guyfortier's ents still live theme.

quegardens (1469) 2004-01-12 18:17

Like Keith, I too had visions of some scene from LOTR upon seeing your black and white presentation.There are even hints of some monsterous snakes slinking out from behind this mysterious tree trunk.Well done Tim and good to see you back posting new photos.

cxxl (2684) 2004-01-12 19:19

Very effectively transformed Tim. The only thing missing is the Troll sitting under the tree. The ranges of light and dark tones between foreground and background works very well.

tdanny (663) 2004-01-12 19:28

Composition is good and interesting. The brightness work well with B&W with the bit of soft glowing bright areas, almost Middle Earth mate. Cheers

soundsangels (1703) 2004-01-12 20:11

Avant m瘱e de lire les critiques d嶴a post廥 pour votre photo...J`avais en t皻e Le Seigneur des Anneaux....Alors lorsque j`ai vu que quelques uns en faisait le lien....C`est qu`il y a vraiment quelque chose de magique dans votre superbe image....Merci magicien de la photo....

momshu (505) 2004-01-12 23:59

Now that's a tree I would love to sleep under.
Great notes on processing.

PechePassion (483) 2004-01-13 1:34

Une tr鋊 jolie composition.
La photo est bien cadr� , mais je rejoins RandomCameraGuy , l'effet appliqu� est trop appuy�.

Les effets sous Ps , oui mais il faut savoir s'arreter � un moment , certains sont utiles mais trop fort (� gauche), certain ne servent � rien car je n'ais jamais vu le soleil travers� un tronc d'arbres.
En voyant la photo original , je me dis que tu n'aurais pas du toucher ....
Je met un point pour la photo original.

merpb (2001) 2004-01-13 5:10

I like your idea and execution especially the spectral highlights although I find the mix of high and low key jarring.
The washed out background competes to much with the detailed foreground which is a pity as the tree itself is superb.

manny (22032) 2004-01-13 7:30

This looks almost like a sketch. Your PS work is certainly well-chosen. I like your composition and most of all, the decision to make it BW. It makes the viewer to focus more on the texture. Very well-seen.

danbachmann (1746) 2004-07-21 10:08

The roots, textures, lights are great in this interesting composition. This is a different level of photography that led to many wet basement darkrooms - labs can't print a negative the way you like it. You've used a digital darkroom in this case.

I like that you have both very light and quite dark areas working together in the same picture.

manu_itu (307) 2004-12-04 3:33

Good composition Tim, and great picture too. Though CG is taking too much of it's credits away.

flagman (298) 2005-03-09 16:15

Love the black & white version, looks very mysterious, I don't think it needed the soft-focus, though.

incesur (79) 2006-09-17 17:54

woooowwwwwww super....

Albrecht (11283) 2007-02-27 13:22

Hi Tim
Impressive tree; and the picture looks like a scene from a movie. Well taken picture.
Greetings Albrecht

Sergiom (117241) 2010-02-16 7:32

Le noir et blanc est parfait pour cette photo.

weetrees (159) 2011-10-14 8:57

hey Tim
spotted this on the front page today
excellent image with a real eerie feel to it
the black and white works brilliantly as does the rest of the processing

Regards
John