Lone cypress

[DeeDee]

This is a shot I took of the Lone Cypress Tree along 17 mile drive, California.
I feel it could be better but don't know how.Any comments?



http://www.dennisdidio.com/Lone%20Cypress%20with%20bird%20flying.jpg

[mpaul73]

It is a nice subject DeeDee. I think the problem here is that there is too much unimportant area surrounding the cypress on the rock. It is much better if you crop it to concentrate the viewers attention on the main subject. It is a bad idea (usually) to place the main subject in the centre of the photo. Loose most of the sky, there is no reason to keep it as it is white out. Also straighten the horizon as it would be in real life. Finally the main subject is a bit flat. It needs adjusted in Photoshop to make it more contrasty.

I hope all that info has not overwhelmed you? :)

regards
Martin.

[Conk]

DeeDee
This is a really nice shot that has much potential. I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty of doing some work to show what can be done from my perspective.
I noticed right away the biggest thing it needed was to be rotated. Clockwise 1.50 degrees.
2nd I cropped the image and cloned out the tree limbs that were posing a distraction.
3rd I boosted the colour saturation and lastly used unsharp mask to give it sharpness.
I'm sure there are other things that can be done to improve but I just wanted to show what 10 minutes in photoshop can achieve.
http://genji.image.pbase.com/u13/conk/upload/19943389.LoneCypresswithbirdflying.jpg

[Radtech1]

I think that a crop might have worked. This is my personal taste:

http://users.adelphia.net/~radtech1/Photos/Thoght.jpg