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Friday, December 2, 2011

Playing with bare trees

One of the things that I like to photograph at this time of year is bare trees silhouetted against the sky.  With the strong winds we have been having recently there are plenty of trees that have lost all of their leaves – the trick is capturing them when there is a blue sky behind!

For Photo art Friday we were encouraged to experiment again so I played with some of my bare tree photos.

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Here I used the invert filter again – to turn the tree white.  Then I added Bonnie’s wicked texture on vivid light and got this spooky image that I think looks as if it is bathed in very strong moonlight

Next was a photo I took in town of the trees and monuments on top of a hill

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I started by using a Pioneer Woman action to turn it to black and white so as to dramatise the silhouettes.  Then I added some textures and stumbled upon an interesting effect.  There are several layers that create the action effect and I accidently put the texture between these layers and discovered that it produces an interesting muted effect.  I will definitely play with this discovery some more.  The textures here are Bonnie’s Old Master dust and unconditional – both on colour burn.

And finally I used a tree silhouette to apply the polar coordinates distort filter which I saw applied in something I read over the summer (sorry can’t remember where).  Ever since I saw it I have been trying the effect of different photos because getting the right photo to use makes all the difference to the result.  This is amongst the best I’ve created.  It reminds me of one of the illustrations in the book The Little Prince.

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I’ll be taking more photos of bare trees this month so that I can create some more dramatic photo art with them.  Are you a fan of photographing bare trees?

16 comments:

kareninkenai said...

oh, yes, these are amazing. would like to try that... I have PSE10 and CS5 - does it have polar coordinates distort filter? anyway, i have unique type trees from my last PAF: http://www.alaskabluemoose.blogspot.com/2011/11/winter-wonderland.html
these are wonderful. thank you so much for sharing. karen (visiting from Photo Art Friday)

Tina´s PicStory said...

great pics!

Sian said...

I'm certainly a fan of admiring other people's photos of bare trees! You could turn these into amazing cards

Birgitta said...

Beautiful and great edit!

Elizabeth said...

I have always loved the sight of bare trees. Some of them are so beautiful and others can be scary.

hannah said...

I am, I am!
Took two dozen naked tree pictures today. Much more photogenic than those leafy jobs :-)
Like your whirly-twirly tree.

Ida said...

Each one is so different and unique. I love the 1st one a lot.

Anonymous said...

Nice trees.

deborah said...

how fun - great effects all!

Miriam said...

I love them all Helena. The last one reminds me of the Tiny World pictures.

Pat said...

I love the eerie atmosphere in the second photo.

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

Beautifully done!

Alison said...

These are wonderful Helena..especially love the first one!
Alison xx

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

Oh yes Helena I consider bare trees to be the most beautiful sculpture and that is certainly evident in your photos and edits here. Isn't it exciting when you stumble upon an effect - take note of it - and are able to use it again?!! Thanks so much for sharing your work with Photo Art Friday.

Ginger said...

I wold never think to take photos of bare trees, but you are making me want too!! I love the second photo :)

Jimjams said...

Fabulous photo treatments - taking a fairly boring object and making interesting art from it - clever lady!