Just starting out, please take a look

I've only started getting into photography, so I'm definately the beginner. Could you guys give me some tips on how this pic (image quality wise) could have come out better?

Taken @ 1/500 F2.8 (F size of up to 8.0 didn't seem to make a difference in clarity), tripod, manual mode, AWB, ISO 50, Bright overcast day.

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With the sky greyed out like that, I might take advantage of that and convert this to a high contrast monochrome. Give it a whirl and lets see what you come up with.

Rad

How's this?

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Normally I dont like the diffuse glow filter as it is just a little too cliche, but it wokrs in this image.

For what I was thinking, I was going a little more stark, like this:

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I know I didn't render the image the way you were talking about, I'm new to PS, I've used Photo Impact in the past and am only beginning to learn PS (I just got PS 8 CS). If you don't mind me asking, how did you get the image that way?

Since I don't use PS8, I do not know the nomenclature for that product. I use PS Elements 2.0, and I rarely bump against any limitations. In Elements, using the drop down menus I selected Enhance\Adjust Color\Remove Color and that got it to a Black and White.

Then I selected Enhance\Brightness-Contrast and I increased the contrast to about +10 and lowered the brightness by the same amount. Some of the branches got washed out, so I then used the Lasso tool, and selected an area of the sky where the small branched were. I went around the large ones, as they were dark enough already. Once I had my selection, I went back to Enhance\Brightness-Contrast and further lowered the brightness and brought up the contrast so the small branches would be seen.

The one thing about PhotoShop is that the help system is quite good. If you just F1 and then choose Index and then Color, there may be an entry on Color Removal.

Rad

thanks!

I've been a little to lazy...gotta address that...

For some reason I like the second post. It has a sort of power, but I couldn't say why. Maybe it's the loss of focus in the background, which lifts the tree out. Dunno, but I like #2.

Any suggestions on how I should have taken the shot to keep the tree the main object of focus but not get so much wash in the tree area?

The only way I see, would be to get above the tree, then the ground or the lake would be become your background.

Very interesting subject however

I like #2, too.
The subject simply pops up in #2, and I'm not sure why. By the way the CA/PF in #1 kinda ruins the picture. You can try converting to B/W with the channel mixer.

I'm sorry, I'm not completely up on the abbrev. CA/PF?

I'm assuming you're talking about the wash in the smaller tree's?

Again, I'm just starting out with this photography stuff, so any tips on how I could have initally taken shot #1 would be great!

CA stands for Chromatic Aberrations. You can learn more about it here:
http://www.dpreview.co​m …key=chromatic+a​berrations

I agree that #2 is the best. It emphasizes the true subject (the dead tree) better than the others. It also emphasizes the wintry-ness of the scene better. The brightness is elevated, blowing out the background (a virtue in this case, as the background is merely a distraction), while the colors are somewhat desaturated, softening the subject and giving it a kind of dreamy quality.

As a side note, notice how much better the ground frost comes out in the 2nd photo.