Gold Country Oak Tree

DsrtVW

The moss and lichen on the rock this oak is growing over is what really caught my eye. Plus the sky was so clear with the North wind blowing added the blue and the rain added the green. Really made for some nice color.

Close up of the Rock

schmoo

That is one very austere old tree, that's for sure. Trees like that certainly have stories to tell if they could.

Your colors are a bit saturated for my taste, but I actually find the juxtaposition of an ancient tree and the warm bright day compelling! You only expect mist and rain with oaks like that.

CatOne

Wow... colorful!

I like #1 (crop that tree out on the right side though!) but the saturation and contrast are REALLY strong. Looks like you cranked your levels in and cranked the saturation to +50 or more... the shadows are SUPER black, which I know isn't how they really were. I'd probably dial the levels and saturation back a bit.

DsrtVW

Here is the original cropped a bit and in original Vivid Setting. The first one was sharpened and Saturation was upped 2 notches. The light and color that day was unreal there was a big north wind that had blown out all the smog and haze. I upped the saturation to bring out the colors of the mosses and lichen under the tree on the rock, That was what caught my eye in the first place. The green grass and blue sky I went back to get a shot with the D300 but it was a partly cloudy day so the colors did not pop.

cmason

To me they both look dramatically oversharpened. You mention "vivid' which suggests you took these as jpeg. I suggest not sharpening a jpeg, since it already has in-camera sharpening applied.

DsrtVW

These were taken in RAW D50 With Picture Control in Vivid setting. No sharpening was done in post on the last picture posted. First set was +2 on sharpening and saturation in Capture NX.