[blowup]

A photo of a tree growing over the the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Copan (Honduras). Copan was already an abandoned city, covered by jungle, when the Spanish first came to this part of the world, in the 16th century. All comments and critiques are welcome.

[Pavel]

Gary, I like the concept of the photo. The combination of moth-covered boulders, roots and the base of a tree should work and I would have tried to do something similar.
Your composition is traditional. It provides a focus to the photo and it follows the rule of thirds. Furthermore the routes converge on the tree, leading you to the focus of the photo.
The in-camera work is fine. There is a good depth of field, all is in focus (providing exif-type of info would help here - see my more recent posts). Exposure is also fine.
Your post-processing resulted in pleasing, if not very rich colours.

With all this going for the photo, it does not seem to cause a great deal of excitement for me or hold my attention. Why? I can only guess. Here are some thoughts:
- The squarish shape contributes to a static feeling
- I would go excentric here, push the tree against the right side of the frame and extend well beyond current left frame. That way, the tree trunk provides a demi-arch on the right.
- The biggest problem in my view is that the trunk blends in with the ground and does not stand appart. This "blending in" I noticed in a few of your photos and I think it significantly weakens their impact.
- There just is not enough shadow range, colour range or texture range in this photo.

Whe I first saw this photo, my first and persistent thought was that this is nice, but I want to see what is happening all around. I wanted to see sky, rouins, squirel anything in addition to this.

I hope this is useful in some way. Pavel

[blowup]

Pavel,
Thanks for another detailed critique. Yes, I often favor understated scenes with muted colors & light. And you are right in this case, that it is too much so. Therefore, I have tried to rework the photo, making the kind of changes that you have suggested. I had cropped this photo, to take out some background on the left. So, I went back to the original, and cropped a tiny bit on the right, instead, to move the tree trunk to the right side. I used curves to increase the shadows and contrast. And I used Apply Image in Lab Mode, to juice up the colors, but masked everything except the tree trunk. Let me know if you think that this is an improvement.
Gary

[Pavel]

Gary, The composition was a move in the right direction (the pun is partly intended). Also the tree colour is an improvement, However, the contrast in the rocks is harsh to the point of being jarring and the photo still needs more space to the left. If necessary, I would move the tree. I would also consider painting some highlights in bu using adjustment layer, increasing the brightness and using soft brush paint some highlights in on the left side of the photo. It may take a few attempts before you make the highlights look natural, but no reviewer caught me at it yet. Leaving aside the harsh contrast evereywhere except the tree, I would say that this photo is an improvement from the previous one.

[blowup]

If necessary, I would move the tree.

Well, you might have to move it to Toronto, cause there is nothing left on the left! I may work some more on this photo, but not tonight.