Winter Small Pine Tree

One of the first times I scouted this golf course, I saw this tree but the light was already too late so I took a mental note. Ever since then it would never be sunny. Also, the temperature changed a lot which made the snow melt a bit not making it powdery. So I waited for the sun and some fresh snow.

The day before a big snowstorm, it was nice and sunny. I didn't intend of going but my wife suggested I should go. For some reason, it's only then I realized if I don't go now, tomorrow it will be covered by too much snow.

I usually don't take setup pictures in nature but I wanted to show you why you need a telephoto lens. 2 reasons. 1 because I wanted a shallow depth of field and 2 I wanted to exclude other distractions as much as possible. Isolating the subject.

This shot was with my Fujifilm X-T3 + Fujinon XF55-200mm. This is out of camera raw with Lightroom presets (Adobe Color):

So because the tree was backlit, it's really dark. I tried my best to make it look not HDR. I placed a mask and lifted the shadows, clarity, and texture. I created a vignette with a radial filter. In the overall picture, I decreased the highlights quite a bit and lifted the shadows. I decreased the contrast and vibrancy. For color grading, I cooled the shadows and warmed the highlights.

190mm 1/400sec F/5.6 ISO 160

One thing I regret not doing is focus stacking. The foreground is not sharp. I assumed it would be so I didn't even check when I was there. This is something to keep in mind when using a telephoto lens. Apart from that, I'm still satisfied. Maybe next year I can try again with a bit of snow on the branches.