that's a tough one. It's hard to get past the lack of focus. If it were in focus, I'd ditch the foreground. It looks like you're framing the image with the foreground brush but it's not the central item so it's distracting.
http://site.lensloaners.com/IMG_8553crop.jpg
and nothing against the FonZ but your watermark doesn't fit with the feel of the image.
It's an interesting tree, the problem you have with this, is one we all face alot, and that is how do we isolate something that looks cool, from all the busyness around it. The crop that Thomas did helps alot. As already mentioned, you have to make sure the shot is in focus. You mentioned traffic, were you trying to dodge cars as your were shooting this? If so, the fact that you are still around to have posted this says alot...
A few more things. Keep the wide side of your image to 800pix, your shot is too large for here. And the watermark needs to go, it really distracts from the image alot. I mean this nicely, but I don't think you need to worry about anyone stealing these images yet...
thanks guys, i tried to resize but every time it stays the same. im using photobucket so that might be a problem. and yes i sort of figured my watermark wouldnt fit in, thats what ive been using for other things, so i figure it can retire.
Choosing the right software depends on the type of work you're doing. If you're taking pictures and not heavily editing them I'd reccomend Google's Picasa; its a very cool basic editor. It doesn't work with layers but your basic image improvements and organization can be done efficiently with it.
Lightroom isn't too expensive and it's an amazing tool for Photographers.
Gimp Shop is an open-source (free) alternative to Photoshop
It's real simple to resize an image, it's 4 clicks basically. I have a batch file set up to do mine, but typically as I edit a shot I will make 3 files. I will keep 1 full rez file, then I will convert it to sRGB and save it as a jpq at a quality of "10" for printing purposes, and then from that one I simply click on the image size option, change it to 72 dpi, and change the width then to 800px. All of that is done in less then 30 seconds...
If you are posting more shots in some of the other forums here, then just set up a batch file, otherwise, once you get into a routine, it goes so fast you don't even think about it.
Hi Kyle
Excellent advice above. I like the mist in your image
As for colored version, the red house being the most dominant, draws my eyes away from the tree. B&W version by Thomas is better. I, personally, would crop the house away.
Sorry, this image doesn't do anything for me. Focus is soft, colors are dull, sky is too bright, too busy where the main subject is located and the watermark is what catches most of the attention.
