Tree on the Hill

[Amy Earl]

I took a drive the morning after a little snowfall in December here in France and found this lone tree on a hill, so of course I couldn't resist stopping.

Normally when I'm retouching photos I try not to stray too far from the original, but in this case I wanted to bring out the drama of the dark sky to contrast with the snow. I made a Lightroom preset called Moody Blue which I felt worked well on this scene. Here's the unedited photo straight off the camera (though retaining the crop I chose) for comparison:

All comments welcome!

 

[Amy Earl]

PS. Quick question - the quality of my photos seems to drop considerably when they are uploaded. I tried uploading the image at 1650px wide instead of 1200px but it doesn't look better. There's a lot of compression visible, especially on the tree branches. Does anyone have tips for posting a better-looking image? Thanks in advance!

 

[AlanLichty]

The blue treatment does add an interesting mood to the scene although I kind of like the slightly darker tones in the clouds of the unedited version. I do like how the trees are rendered in the first image.

For image size there are two options - the direct upload or upload to a gallery image. The direct uploads are limited to 1200 pixels. Anything larger than that will be downsampled to 1200 and it does tend to soften images a bit. For gallery images the sizes are much more generous and images tend to look a lot nicer from my experience. Personally I upload most of my images to the gallery area and then insert them into a thread using the camera icon above and to the right of the edit dialog. While larger gallery images are downsized when a thread is first opened it seems to be less impacted than direct upload image downsizing and you can click on the image to go to the gallery and see the original image with no downsizing.

 

[JimFox]

Hi Amy, what a beautiful solo tree! I love trees by themselves but here where I am they are super hard to come by. So I am a bit jealous and don’t blame you at all for stopping. On top of that the loose thin cloud floating in front of the darker back clouds is so awesome.

As for sizing, Alan hit on it. 1200 pix is our native size. Are you sure it was 1200 and not 1250? At 1200pix there isn’t any down sampling, so the image shouldn’t be affected. Anything larger does get downsized.

As Alan mentioned using the Gallery is a great way to overcome the 1200pix setting. They are easy to create. So you might want to look at that as an option too.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Beautiful image and I like your preset, it works fine. Alan and Jim covered the posting issues.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Nicely seen Amy. I prefer the second image. The clouds are a little hot in the first.

 

[Amy Earl]

Thanks, all, and thanks for the Gallery tip, Alan. I will try that on my next post!

Jim, I did try 1200px on my first upload of this one. Funny thing is, I uploaded 1200px photos for my last post (Winter Scenes) and didn't notice a significant change in quality. But perhaps the compression is simply less visible in those distant landscapes. Anyway, I will experiment with the Gallery option. Glad you like lone trees too! I have a few trees in my archives that I'd like to share at some point.

Jameel, can you clarify what you mean by "hot" clouds?

It's interesting to hear different opinions. I'm surprised that some of you liked the unedited version better!

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Thanks, all, and thanks for the Gallery tip, Alan. I will try that on my next post!

Jameel, can you clarify what you mean by "hot" clouds?

I meant too bright, close to or at max brightness.

The unedited version has a nice balance of luminosity between the clouds and the ground layer.

 

[Alisa]

Beautiful tree!!

 

[Amy Earl]

I meant too bright, close to or at max brightness.

The unedited version has a nice balance of luminosity between the clouds and the ground layer.

Ah, I see what you mean now. That's a good point. The balance does create a nice relationship between sky and ground that is broken in the first (edited) image.

Thanks, Alisa!

 

[Douglas Sherman]

This image has some great components, Amy: the slanted hill, the rime ice on he branches of the tree. the variation in the cloudy sky, and the contrast between the sky and the snow. I like the original image because it more accurately portrays the actual scene. I think the edit would have been better if you didn't add the bluish cast and just made it a bit darker. Nonetheless, it is a fine image.

 

[Jim Dockery]

I prefer the first, and like Jameel I'd work the clouds a bit, esp. in the upper L corner. I'd also try a B&W conversion where I'd try adding contrast and structure to really bring out the clouds, which make the picture for me. I don't really see much softness or compression in these as is.