Hi Pierre,
The lone tree in a paddock against a heavy sky has been a popular subject in photography for decades. With any iconic image, the challenge becomes to put your own spin on the idea, or at least to make it stand out from every other similar image.
Often the way to do this is to take control of the light and shade in postproduction.
In the example below I have added some contrast to the sky, and at the same time I have darkened the left and right of the field while creating a lighter patch in the central area of the picture. This adds some drama to the scene.
I made these adjustments using a piece of software called Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. It works rather differently to Photoshop, but it is ideal for making good, black and white landscape images.
Now here is the tricky part… most experienced photographers could spend hours or even days working on a landscape image like this. They will create several versions of the file and each time will try to improve on how the way they have interpreted the image. Believe me when I say some photographers will spend a day or more trying to get photos looking perfect. It’s a practice thing!
Now, one thing you need to do is make a decision about what you are going to do with the barbed wire fence at the very bottom of the picture. If you are going to keep this image classic then I would crop it out. That being said, if you could include more of the fence, it could become part of a bolder statement. Remember, the goal is to put your own statement on your images.
Hope this is a help! Cheers, Anthony
Image Doctor's edited version
