To Crop Or Not To Crop...

leave the full tree. ID the trees if you haven't. if you liked it enough to hold onto it, it could sell. hard to say when though. but don't cut the tops of the tree off. its like cutting someone's head in half.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Of the three, I feel the third image is the best balanced.

Kathleen, just a thought, how about converting these to monochrome and adding some contrast to bring out the textures of the trees? I do like the dark and light color of the barks and the lengthening shadows. I like the first one the best as it has lots of sky which can add a little more drama when converted to monochrome. Just my $0.02 :).

Cheers!

Yeah, I didn't like cutting off the tree tops either but I was trying to make the dead snag stand out more. That's my favorite element in the picture. Is there a way to make the snag more eye-catching in the uncropped version?

I like the first one just as it is, seems the slope of the hill is more dramatic, I find it very interesting.

I like the first one just as it is, Kathleen. Those are some pretty cool trees.

I like the uncropped version for the same reason Mike does. The tree is less interesting to me if it's not "whole." I also like the suggestion to make it black and white. I think the shadows could play an interesting part in a monochrome version, whereas in the color version, they are kind of distracting.

I also think it might be a good candidate for monochrome. I'll mess with it in Silver Efex and see what happens.

If I stay with the uncropped version, how do I make the snag in the foreground pop? Brighten it more, or? I'm trying for a natural look. I also did a version with a more interesting sky but it was a bear trying to clean around the branches. Not worth the time.

I just had a thought... what if I scoot the white birch farther down slope toward the camera so I could still crop to bring the snag closer without cutting the birches' heads off?

It looks to me like the snag has more orange than the rest of the image. So, use the orange filter on the monochrome image and see what happens. I often don't know whether darker or lighter on the color filters will give me something I like until I try it.

I would crop some off the bottom rather than the top

I like the original, uncropped version.

Kathleen,

I like it as is, but if you're dying to crop, crop from the bottom, to the top of that second dead tree on the ground.

Rich

I like the uncropped version but I would try it in black and white maybe high key?

I agree with Mike... don't chop the head off... Keep the first one! Also, experiment with black and white with this... May be more mood provoking!

I'm trying a few variations of black and white but still not satisfied. Also tried desaturating the color surrounding the snag and I think it looks more natural. Sometimes if I fuss with something too long it gets overcooked so I need to leave it alone and look at it later with fresh eyes.

I like the uncropped, Kathleen. That deep blue sky makes the trees just pop out. Looks as if the tree limbs are "waving" :)

Uncropped!

Uncropped for sure... the little trees on the right balance the little trees on the left. The first thing that caught my eye were the little trees to the right... didn't even really see the big, bright white tree until after I viewed the image for a bit.

Although I am wondering if you cropped out the little tree to the left, how that might look... then of course you would have the upper branch of the larger tree leading out of the frame. Might actually work though.

If black and white doesn't work well... sepia tone usually does.

Lightest part of the image naturally draws the eye in, so the focal point is the white tree, not the dead one. I never even noticed it,till you mentioned it.
Try toning down the white one with curves or levels mask, and brightening the snag a bit.
Also, Id crop out the bottom i stead of the top.
Comverting to B/W is a good idea. Do you have Nik plugins? silver EFEX will give you options that should bring out the snag while pushing the white one into the background.

Maybe Orton-ize or gaussien blur elements you dont want the eye to focus on.

Is this an image you can reshoot from a different angle?