Same image with a more aggressive ‘cinema’ crop (2.35:1) and letterboxed to 1.85:1. Not sure which I like better. Some of the darker areas might have clipped more than I wanted, but I didn’t think the shadow detail there was important to the feeling. The silhouette told me everything I need to know…
After re-inspection here I think I prefer the 2.35:1 crop (this one). I don’t think the slightly lighter foreground in the larger view adds anything to the image - rather I’d say it detracts a bit by trying to pull the eye down to the bottom of the frame.
The only additions to this beyond straight RawTherapee was some slight coloring in GIMP + a bit of an exaggeration of the lighter tones + crop.
Personally I prefer (and like very much) the first version. In the second one there is something slightly disturbing in the lit part of the leaves, although I do not know what exactly it is that distracts my eyes…
You’ve kept the green too Pat. I stuck with the original idea of taking it too bright really - Autumn. I added a gradient to get round the bright foreground. It needs to be angled and RT doesn’t handle that well unless I have missed something. It brightened from each side of an angled line so left a brighter patch bottom left. I’m not keen on the cinema crop either.
Seeing glow mentioned I thought I would see what GIMP’s Orton effect would do. Too much fine detail really so wasn’t keen on the result. I duplicated the blurred layer and set normal mode and reduced the opacity to get a sort of misty result.
Oh yeah! Found this in my PlayRaw folder. I think I did most of it in RT when it was first published and forgot to upload it. I just now resized it in GIMP.
@Thomas_Do, there’s no law that says you can’t resurrect any, old thread you find interesting. Especially when it’s to play around with such lovely photos.
I think what I have looks most like @patdavid’s . An aggressive curve, just about laid the spline flat on the bottom and top ends. Crop to take out the foreground and put the lighted part in a good place in the frame: