Dead tree root

Walking along the river bank near my house I spotted an interesting dried out root system from a dug up tree. I took a few snaps, loaded them into Lightroom and had a play around. I came up with a BW edit but I'm on the fence with it? What do you think? I do like it, but there's definitely something about it that bugs me..I think It might be the mountains in the background.

I think your on track with the mountains. Something about it seems not right to me too, but i can't quite put my finger on it. I think because the mountains basically follow the same shape as the outline of the root ball, it makes for some visual tension in the picture.

Other than that, it seems kind of on the dark side to me, but I'm not on a calibrated monitor or anything like that.

Could be the mountains too, but if I was shooting something like this sorrounded by the vastness of all those rocks, I'd want to show the entire subject. It's bugging me having the roots/branches cutoff on the left.

Yeah, I agree with you both. I definitely think the mountains are conflicting with the roots and Q-Man good spot, I completely over looked the cut out part of the root

I might try some PP trickery and shorten the edges of the root back into the shot. See how I go..

I think this is a great subject, I'm not sure if you can return to the scene, or if you cropped the photo much but a view from a much farther back perspective with no mountains would be great I think. I think it would really convey the "emptiness" and "desolation" that the roots give off.

I can go back and probably will, I really do like it as a subject..I might even bring it home if no-ones looking

Here is the root from a slightly different angle. Its completely in the shot now but the mountains are still causing a little trouble.

composition aside, the black and white conversion could use some work.

gen2roller wrote in post #14982826
composition aside, the black and white conversion could use some work.

How so? I haven't done a whole lot of BW conversions. How can I improve? Thanks for the feed back.

Sorry I was busy earlier and didn't finish my thought. The shot looks very flat and gray. I did a very quick edit in which I bumped the exposure 1 stop, added contrast, pulled down the highlights a little, pulled up the blacks and added a bit of clarity to get a wider range of tones, especially a real white

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Wow. After comparing my original edit and this one I completely understand what you mean by it being flat and grey! Thanks for taking the time to tweak it and repost! I learnt alot, appreciate it.

you're quite welcome! I spent a lot of time shooting and printing my own black and white film so I had to pay attention to this stuff

I dont know....I love the make up of the root, but I think the mountains just make it look muddled. If you could take the shot without the mountains, it'd make the foreground so much more appealing...

Scottdog129 wrote in post #14988844
I dont know....I love the make up of the root, but I think the mountains just make it look muddled. If you could take the shot without the mountains, it'd make the foreground so much more appealing...

This is what I was thinking too. Maybe take about two big steps to the left, and a step back and get the root ball with just the sky behind it and include the mountains in the field of view to the left? I would also maybe get down a little lower and shoot up so more of the roots are in the sky instead of having the horizon cut through the middle of them.

pitrow wrote in post #14991247
Maybe take about two big steps to the left, and a step back and get the root ball with just the sky behind it and include the mountains in the field of view to the left? I would also maybe get down a little lower and shoot up so more of the roots are in the sky instead of having the horizon cut through the middle of them.

I know what Ill be doing after work tomorrow!

Might be a little late for your re-shoot, but I'd suggest framing it with the mountains, but from a different angle. Get up close, using your widest lens, but stand up and get the root lower in frame so they aren't covering the mountains.

The way I see it, Stand up, walk closer, shoot in portrait. Just IMO of course. Lots of potential there.