Sunrise Boat Trails

Excellent combination of elements here. I love the tree isolated against water and sky and the motion in the water adds interest. I'd back off the saturation a bit and tone down the highlights on the clouds. A few minor tweeks and this will be a winner, IMO.

Good critique/suggestions by Nancy. I like this for the simplicity and the tranquil mood.
Good colours and dynamic range too...

Thanks for the comments. I wish I could bring back the clouds, but as this was sort of a fast set up from a moving boat, I had a choice, either save the clouds, or save the tree. I opted to save the tree. LR4 highlight slider is already at -84. I figured the tree was a major point of interest and the clouds, while present, were certainly able to be sacrificed. My decision to boost the saturation was to bring contrast to an otherwise flat image. I understand the massive divide on saturation and I'm usually in the less is more camp, but here I felt the stark contrast was worth the color boost. Thanks again.

Looks like too much shadow recovery especially in the tree but lovely composed scene and nice light. Sweet

aF

Very nice composition. The tree is very well placed within the frame. IMO the vertical format is nice but I'd suggest to crop a bit from the bottom part.

Very much enjoy it! Beautiful color, great reflection of the tree. I like that you made this image happen by where and how you maneuvered the boat. It inspires my imagination about meandering in a boat in what looks like a tranquil, peaceful place.

Great composition with the ripples leading to the lonely tree and colourfull sky in the back!

Neat shot under tough conditions. I agree with Nancy Lea about the saturation, but your composition and use of the boat's wake is great....guess you have to go boating here some more.

Well sen, Geoff. I agree that the wake adds some interest. I've done similar scenes both by canoe and flatboat. The composition for me is just a bit right-heavy, but maybe a bit more room on the RHS would help. Considering the difficult lighting (squarely into the sun) your exposure looks good. You might want to reprocess with a little less shadow recovery, and keep an eye on the strong halo on the right side of the buttress. Good work.

Thanks everyone. I'm not sure about the shadow recovery comments. The only shadow recovery done was on the tree ( I do think I need to scale that back by about 30% thanks ), but there is no shadow recovery elsewhere. In fact that's the reason for the halo pointed out by Bill (thanks, good eye). I've redone that apparently quite sloppy mask and added some artistic flare to it. I feel the weight is balanced thru the crescent shape focal areas (boat trails, to tree, to sun; two more subtle points on the left, one strong point on the right).

Thanks again.

beautiful shot, love the crop and composition and backlight on the tree....stunning serenity

Great composition. Very minimalist