Photography can mean so many things to different photographers … I am finding my direction is leaning towards the creative and artistic approach to what I capture in camera. It has been a learning curve and there is so much more to learn and enjoy about photography. I was fortunate to win the Creative Category with this image. To have your work recognized by 3 top Australian photographers was a “Woo Hoo oh what a feeling” moment.

In the Field

To stand among the trees that were planted in 1928 is surreal, you appreciate and respect their beauty/resilience. This is not an easy location to shoot, it can be overwhelming and you have to work hard at finding a composition. Unfortunately, the trees were lost in a major bush fire.

One of the things I say to photographers is to try to “shoot with processing in mind”, “think why are you pressing the shutter”. This can be challenging at times, but I find it can give direction when nothing is grabbing you

With my camera and tripod set up I walked around to find the angle I was after. I wanted to capture an image that showed the separation of the trees, as I had an image in mind I wanted to create. It wasn’t working then all of a sudden the light came through the trees, I knew it would be a fleeting moment. I quickly took some shots, there were some highlight blow outs, so I underexposed in camera and pressed the button, hoping for the best. The result was some images with what I label as “the bones are there to process an image”.

Some of the Post Processing techniques

• Post Processing to me is a way I feel I have artistic license to create an image I have in my mind. I sometimes go back in my memory to draw on the experience I felt, then I will create an image with that feeling in mind.

• My thought process to edit this image was to have a simple composition, show the separation of the trees, the trees in the background were the support to the main trees in the foreground. Give it depth, warmth and a feeling of being there ... that moment in time!

• The programs I used to create this image were - Lightroom, Photoshop, TK Actions 6 and Nik

• Here are a few of the techniques I used to create this image.

Lightroom

• I have a pre-set I created that applies – Remove Chromatic Aberration, Enable Profile Correction, straighten image and a few other techniques this is my base for every image to give consistency in my editing

• Then I adjusted shadows, added more warmth in the temperature setting, deleted dust spots and a few more adjustments to tweak the base image.

• I find having a structured process in the initial editing phase gives consistency.

Photoshop

• Again, I follow a structured process. I will do a colour correct layer if required, a curves or levels adjustment to get my foundation set.

• The next step was to tidy up the image – removing unwanted objects in the foreground. As the undergrowth was busy, I do what I call “tidy up the messy bits”. I can be a bit fussy with my foreground if its messy to my eyes. I will scan the image and look for those messy bits and use the spot heal brush or patch tool to get rid of them.

• I used several adjustment layers - Brightness and Contrast, Hue and Saturation, Curves to get the light and colour to what I had in mind.

• Now for the creative process.

• Then I went over to Nik and used the Foliage and Sunlight Filters and played with that to add the light and colour.

• I added more Curves Adjustment layers to add the lightness and darkness

• Then I applied a Motion Blur Filter in Photoshop, this can be hit and miss with the settings to set the right amount of blur, I added a mask and brushed out the motion blur areas particularly on the front trees to have the texture of the tree trunks to come through.

• Then I added some Dodge and Burn layers to add or decrease the light in some of the areas, for example the forest floor.

• Sometimes with images I feel there is something missing and I will what I call it “flip it, for whatever reason I can’t say. To do this go the Menu Bar and click on Image/Rotate Image/Flip Canvas Horizontal. It works for my eyes, not all the time though.

• The image was starting to take shape what I had in mind, but I felt there was something missing. I added some Solid Colour Layers to achieve the Tone and Colour, then I added a Fine Art Texture (see my Fine Textures Collections) The texture gave it the golden light in the trees I was after, I will often use Textures as a colour grading technique.

• Adding more Adjustment layers and I used an action I have set up to adjust mid tone contrast. (A technique I learnt off another photographer). It was taking shape to my vision.

• Now for the finishing touches - I added an Orton action to the image (see my post processing tips on Orton Effect on how to do this) Orton Effect

• Then an Auto Curves Layer, Sharpen Layer and it was done. In all about 15 layers.

Why did I choose this image to enter?

To be honest it was a last minute rush decision. I was extremely time poor in editing my images this year, I had some images already processed but I had in mind to enter a forest image. But I had not processed one, I had an hour before the deadline to enter my images. I needed a filler image so I started processing this image.

Lesson learnt - having a vision and an idea on what I wanted to create helped me processing this image. I am constantly looking at different images on various platforms, when I find one that speaks to me I save it. I find doing this gives me ideas. By exposing yourself to other photographers images it builds up the “visual bank” and gives you direction. I find now I look at images and I analyse the image how did they process it, what techniques did they use.

To have your name called out and see your image in print was a “ moment in time to remember” what a journey it has been.