Hi Everyone,

I have been invited to take part in an exhibition and I have to submit a framed print. I want to go big and wide (about 4 feet wide). You may remember my trip to New Zealand a while back. I have chosen one image from that trip and worked on it. Please find following the original and then the reworked picture.

Please give me your oppinions on:

1) Do you like the edit and do you have any suggestions to improve it?
2) Should I put a black or white border around it? Or other suggestions for a border?
3) Do you think it would look good as a big print?




Thanks,

Chris

It would be good to see it a little larger to give some more feedback considering you are planning to print it so big.
I think the foreground including the tree looks great and has been further improved by your post processing. The colour in the tree looks very good.
You may have already tried it but I wonder how the image would look with a bit of vignetting to darken the edges and corners?



BUT -Your image is awesome as is and this is only shown to help come up with suggestions.

How do you plan to display it? I think a professional matt and framing always looks better than something printed with a border.
Shane

I like the edit very much--the colors have a great mood, and Shane's vignetting works for me, too.

Also, I agree about not using a digital border.
To me, they are only useful for getting an idea of what a frame/matt will look like before printing, but tend towards a gimmicky look when printed.
Stay classic, with a good print and fine framing.

I did play around with some corner vignetting - when the image is so large it does not seem to work so well as your eye can not take in the whole frame as easily. I opted for vignetting the sky with a brown colour.

Do you think it needs to be darker at the top?
Does the tree need a little less contrast?

Here is a larger version. Please click on it as the forum is squashing it a little.

The bigger it gets the more I like it.
I can see why you want to print it so large.

Another option could be to use cooler tones on the water (more blue) to contrast more against the warm colour of the tree?
I used it in the sky too (but that didn't really work...)



Tell me when you get annoyed at me destroying your image...

Wonderful picture Chris... and Congratulations...

Great tries Shane!! I like specially your first one...

The range of colors is a bit different from what you have here, but I found interesting this combination, and wanted to show.

To my understanding it is a strong picture with layers of colors and textures, a bit cold. It is telling me that the storm is comming and the main subject is a nearly dead tree, in a isolated place. So it is a bit of a drama....
I also wanted to separate the tree from the sky. So without making it too cold I took kind of green and light brown as main colors.
It has a vignette which in my opinion adds to the mood.

So many cool ideas - thanks Shane and Irma. I am not so sure about the blue water. I like the greens in Irma's edit. However - I am probably still leaning towards the original edit with perhaps another go at the vignette.

Keep the ideas flowing.

My other try, this time I worked with your post processed picture and without vignette....



A pleasure to work with your picture, Chris. It is beautiful...

Now I must go... gardening day...

I like the warm glow of the first edit. I can almost picture it as a "motivation" poster...

Very nice. The edit looks a little unnatural to me, but still makes for a very good image

Hey Chris,

Wonderful shot! It will look fantastic as a large print.

I really like where you're going with your PP. It creates a lovely mood. I particularly like the redness of the tree which gives it an unusual yet believable look. I'm not quite so sure about the amount of colour saturation you have in the sky however - I find it a little distracting.

I've taken your larger version from post #4 and done a couple of my own takes on it. I haven't changed much; just tried to keep the sky interesting with tones instead of colour, tried to make the overall colour a bit more subtle, highlighted some detail in the mountains, and thrown in a b/w option too (which I think works well).

You can't go wrong though with such a great image to begin with. At 4' long it will be breathtaking. I'm thinking that some white matte-board (but not bright white) would look nice around it.

Thanks Adrian - as always your pp work is outstanding.

This thread is more like fix-me-up than critique. But I think the reason is the beautiful photo. Everyone wants a feel of it.

So beautiful... How I loved this topic with all your contributions
Well done dear Chris,
Thank you,
with my love,
nia