Standing Strong 2

I think this looks real nice. At first look, I thought the blue was too saturated, but this works well. the bits of cloud and the details are excellent. My only nit is the horizon is tilted counter-clockwise a bit. Otherwise, this look great, Ryan.

--P

That darn horizon, I have adjusted it so many times, lol. I will take care of that in a print, and thanks for the thoughts Preston. Sometimes I feel like this image is just not meant to be fully straight, but it will be.

I would prefer this with no horizon line at all.
Nice color, nice PP.....

I love the colors and the "dark" light, Ryan. The problem with the horizon: can you straighten it without tilting the tree? If the tree become appreciable tilted, then I think I prefer it as it is. It is a gorgeous image regardless!

Hey Ryan,
This image is certainly worth all the effort you have put into it so far and once you have settled on a finished version, it will surely be one of those images that you get a lot of mileage out of through the years.
I like Dan's idea of no horizon line at all and will second that motion as worth a try.
Man !

Sweet! I am on the fence about the horizon line, I think it will work either way. I might experiment with pulling the reds out of the clouds so they don't compete with the tree and generally simplifying the image? Just an idea to play with and see how it compares. I really like this image. Well done.

Great job. I like these lone tree shots and this one turned out great.

I like the simple composition, the colors and the nice leading line formed by the rocks that lead your eye right to the tree. Fine image.

Awsome little tree, Ryan. I think I'm in agreement with the no horizon crowd. Beautiful image.

Hey Ryan,

Looks like this is a bit different image based on the clouds. I like this infinite blue version a lot more now that I look at the 2 side by side. Very very nice.

Put me down in the horizon out camp.

I'd also darken that bright spot at the base of the tree.

-Jeff

Ryan:

You have a style, as I could tell it was yours from the thumbnail at first glance. The 7 D does have a built in viewfinder level, though not the easiest thing to use. Verticals are harder than horizontals. Easy enough to level the horizon, try using a grid if you have photoshop. My comment on image manipulation (wholly my opinion) is we should work with what we have, and if there is a horizon, we should have one in the image. Perhaps limiting the philosophical possibilities, but requiring better seeing of the land and what IS (Clintonian emphasis) is there.

If you do need to adjust the Geometry as we could do in the view camera days, try transform/distort which allows you to correct the horizon and adjust the tree if you feel this is necessary. Exactly what was considered good technique when we had camera movements.

Nice image! Tom

Lovely clean look at this tree wearing it's fall colors. There's a nice luminosity to the leaves in the larger version. I agree with Alberto, that the tree looks pretty straight here and may look strange if you level the horizon.

Ryan, This looks great to me. I love the mood you have here and the colors are wonderful. Those orange leaves contrast beautifully with the blues. If the horizon could be leveled without rotating the tree then I would say ok, otherwise I would leave it as is. Nice work on this!

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI