Firey Oak Tree
Introduction

While shooting a scene early one November morning at White Rock Lake in Dallas I turned and saw this red oak tree that in the sunrise light stood out prominently with its fall colors. I returned after noon to see that its leaves looked dead and brown.

Still, the tree as a subject with the nice diagonal and curve of the trail leading your eye into the picture looked like something that could be developed. After all, film people enhance their shots with special filters, processing, and type of film itself.

Original Scene

The image to the right is enhancedby using two processes to "blue up" the sky, and two processes to fix up the tree color, saturation, and lightness. Note that the foreground seems more alive in the image to the right, but it received no processing at all. Changes to the sky and tree affected the appearance of the entire image.

On the next pages we'll look at adjusting the sky. Use the mini navigation bar below or click the arrow to turn to the next page.