Together in the field

[habakuk]

(click > zoom)

enjoy
®

[aprilS]

I do enjoy the isolation of these trees (tall and small) in the field, and imagine them calling "hellooooo over there... How ya doin?"   

But I am a bit thrown by the texture of the field itself. It seems somehow artificial against the sharpness of the trees, and reminds me of a "glass" filter or a shag carpet. So there's a dissonance which makes me question what I am seeing...

[habakuk]

Thanks, April. Yes, I am aware of the flaws, of the uneasy feelings those flaws bring in. I liked the look of the background and the "fluffly feeling" I get, but it might be because of the memories I have which don't translate into the shot, obviously.

cheers
®

[eob]

I agree about the artificial look. It seems that the image has been highly oversharpened and its white balance pushed aggressively toward warm tones. Otherwise, I like this scene of a green resistance against the withering heath a lot.

If I may suggest anything to improve the uneasiness, I would copy the image to a separate layer, soften it with a blur (any kind of blur, but preferably the Gaussian blur) and then blend those two layers masking out only the trees. That way, the background would become softer and less pronounced, while the trees would remain the focus of attention. Contrast is what this image needs more instead of sharpness, in my opinion. Of course, there is a lot more that could be done to get rid of harshness, but this seems to be one of the basic and most effective methods (in my arsenal, anyway).