NE Birch at Sunset

hawkeye978

I've been working a wetland area in the morning but now it's time for some sunset attempts. I'm trying to get a feel for the birch tree stands at sunset to bring out some contrast and light. I'm struggling a little with color temperature on these so I could use some feedback. I had the sun at my back so the foreground is warm but the sky is running cooler as the sun sets.

#1



#2



#3



#4



#5



#6



Others can be found here.

Thanks for looking.

hawkeye978

Shameless bump...

Lots of activity last night on the forum. Posted at 5:20 p EDT and was on the third page by 10p. So one more try..

Eia

I especially like #3 because of the angle but the colors are great too. The tops of the trees remind me of paint brushes painting the sky.

Tee Why

Nice light, feels cool yet warm. go figure.

eoren1

Hey Tom,
For what it's worth, I always prefer birch photos in black and white. That way the detail and contrast of the trees with their eye-like shapes take center stage. From that perspective, I find 2 and 3 to be too warm. The white balance/color in 1 and 4 is nice. I just wish there was a thicker patch of trees so that you could frame them in a dense row.
More specifically, if you could reshoot this one:


With a tighter crop to remove the sky but maintain the reflections and shoot in cooler light...I think that would look awesome!
E

Jaraviss

#1 i like the color and the crop of this...
the positive/negative space of the trees/sky is "balanced" to my untrained eye.



#2 not as strong as #1...too "random"...that doesn't make sense..but 1 feels more "even" or whatever.
plus the tree trunk on the right is right on the edge of the frame...



#3 ummm the "movement" of the trees (angle of them) is cool..but for me the white of the clouds is perfectly behind the group of trees.
seems artificial...even if it is perfectly natural.
just good timing i guess?
(so far...i still *LOVE* number 1) hehe



#4 i ilke this one too...i like the layers..
like up front are the tall spindly lit trees.
next are the darker whispy ones..
then finally full black crowded...then at the end is the sky.
does that make sense? it does to me.... i like it




#5 i like this one alot too...
seems tilted to the right a little?
my 2nd fave of the group.



#6 i like this one too...it'd be cool to try this at different times of day to get different colors of the sky....just to see.


overall...very cool
-G

hawkeye978

eoren1 wrote:

Hey Tom,
For what it's worth, I always prefer birch photos in black and white. That way the detail and contrast of the trees with their eye-like shapes take center stage. From that perspective, I find 2 and 3 to be too warm. The white balance/color in 1 and 4 is nice. I just wish there was a thicker patch of trees so that you could frame them in a dense row.
More specifically, if you could reshoot this one:


With a tighter crop to remove the sky but maintain the reflections and shoot in cooler light...I think that would look awesome!
E

Thanks E,

I know what you're saying. I was trying for that look without actually desaturating. I actually tried something like you suggested here.



I hear you on the warmth of 2 and 3. Those were two I was struggling with as to how to set the white balance. Still not sure on those.

Thanks for the comments..

hawkeye978

Jaraviss wrote:

#1 i like the color and the crop of this...
the positive/negative space of the trees/sky is "balanced" to my untrained eye.



#2 not as strong as #1...too "random"...that doesn't make sense..but 1 feels more "even" or whatever.
plus the tree trunk on the right is right on the edge of the frame...



#3 ummm the "movement" of the trees (angle of them) is cool..but for me the white of the clouds is perfectly behind the group of trees.
seems artificial...even if it is perfectly natural.
just good timing i guess?
(so far...i still *LOVE* number 1) hehe



#4 i ilke this one too...i like the layers..
like up front are the tall spindly lit trees.
next are the darker whispy ones..
then finally full black crowded...then at the end is the sky.
does that make sense? it does to me.... i like it




#5 i like this one alot too...
seems tilted to the right a little?
my 2nd fave of the group.



#6 i like this one too...it'd be cool to try this at different times of day to get different colors of the sky....just to see.


overall...very cool
-G

Thanks for all the comments. I really appreciate the critiques.

By the way, #3 is actually a blend of the same picture with two different color temps. One for the tree and one for the sky. This was one I was try to balance properly. The trees were warm and the sky was cooler because that's the eastern sky.

And the virtual tilt in #5 has been driving me crazy. No matter how I rotate the thing is always looks tilted. I suspect it's a brain thing picking up on different clues as to the location of the horizon. That's one of the reasons I lightened the dark background trees slightly to try and bring out a tiny bit of detail.

Thanks again...

eoren1

hawkeye978 wrote:

Thanks E,

I know what you're saying. I was trying for that look without actually desaturating. I actually tried something like you suggested here.



I hear you on the warmth of 2 and 3. Those were two I was struggling with as to how to set the white balance. Still not sure on those.

Thanks for the comments..

I like this one
Now how about a nice b/w treatment with 'pop'???
By the way, where is this? I've only managed nice birch shots on a trip to Aspen thus far. Haven't yet explored our birch forests here in Mass.
E

hawkeye978

Here's a quick and dirty B&W treatment.



As far as location, this is a 5 minute walk from my house on town conservation land. North and west of Boston there are a lot of birch groves like this. Not as pretty as they were since the ice storm in December. We had a lot of damage here since this was one of the hardest hit areas and because the birch are so light there were particularly hard hit. That shows up in how many are bent over. That's due to the ice.

eoren1

Hey Tom,
Really like that last one.
E

ps - did you see the SMUG coming to Boston?
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=128473