A composition no-no?

[S.Wood]

Composing an image with things growing out of the head of one's subject is obviously a no-no. Can the negative effects be mitigated with Depth-of-field?

[Radtech1]

It is better than it could be. The fact that the trees are distant, and therefor blurry does minimize the appearance of a merger. Also working for you is the hat is a little blacker and the trees are a little browner. All in all, it is less than ideal, but far from how bad it could have been.

Rad

[krb]

In this case the trees are just a few of the many in the background that are all the same size, shape and color. It would have been much worse if the background was nothing but gray sky except for a couple of trees growing out of her head. Or if the flash were hitting the trees behind her so that all the trees on the sides were black sillouettes and then there was one brightly lit tree growing out of her head.

[vk2gwk]

For me it is only a relative "no no" and not applicable in this case. Nice shot - well lit, excellent focus.

[PMCphotography]

I don't think any composition "rules" apply 100% of the time.

In this case, it's obvious she's in a forest, so the appearance of trees behind her head doesn't look at all strange.

[S.Wood]

Appreciate the feedback!

[jetcode]

you can also modify the background by reducing the contrast and black levels

[snyderman]

Or you can crop the shot taking the top 1/4 of the hat with a 5 wide, 4 tall crop.

As is, nothing to complain about. The trees blend in with the black hat anyway. Nice shot with excellent focus, WB and color saturation.

dave

[S.Wood]

Good points. Hadn't thought about cropping at all. I may give that a shot.

Thanks!

[Lonnie]

You have really nice color and exposure on your subject.

[OdiN1701]

Really good focus on the jacket - and the jacket is where it is to be expected - out in the woods, etc.

Not bad, may work decently as a product shot.