This picture shows a large cherry blossom and torii gate in a small village in Japan.

I wanted to express the grandeur of the cherry blossoms, the sacredness of the shrine, and the way the cherry blossoms and torii have been nestled together for centuries.

I took this photo around 11:00 a.m. and retouched it darker in my image to bring out the sacredness.

Cropped at 35mm focal length 

F value 6.3 

ISO sensitivity 125 

Shutter speed 1/320 

How can I improve it to make it even better?

Hello Izumi, thank you for posting your version of this exquisit tree. But you have set us quite a challenge. It is said, in landscape photography, that trees and woodlands are the most difficult subject to work with. I would add (having spent a couple of weeks photographing bluebells, yet again) that flowers en-masse are very tough, too. In your image you have both!

Firstly, well done for this - I love cherry trees.

Secondly, I think your crop is too tight. (You do say you cropped it). I prefer my subjects to "breathe;" this tree seems to be a prisoner of the framing.

Thirdly, I cannot tell but I would say 1/320th is ambitious. Here, in the UK, such trees in blossom do quite a dance at the least wind and, thus - unless movement is required, I would play safer but, as I say I cannot tell from this (I did enlarge it to look).

Fourthly, personally, I find the blossom's tones to be too dark. But I read what you said and that might be a decision to accord with your desire to emphasise the sacred. To me, blossom's joy is its bright heralding of Spring but that is probably a British perspective and might not suit your intentions. I would also say that cherry blossom here is pinkish, not blueish but again, I do not know how that fits in, sorry.

Fifth, I love the inclusion of the quintessential Japanese bridge in the frame, nestling under the tree's bloom - great composing.

So I think you have a good image and potentially (from my perspective) a very good one but my cultural telescope may not have translated matters well.

All the best. Cheerio.

NB A cultural telescope translating? As an ex teacher of English (amongst other things) I have to condem the mixed metaphor here.

izumi

Thank you for this interesting image. It has significant potential.

First, I think Woad Visage is spot on in regard to the crop. It is too tight. Hopefully there is a larger uncropped version you can work with. Alternatively, if you are willing some generative expand can be used to give it that much needed breathing room.

In regard to editing I would suggest going black & white. You are already emphasizing the tonal contrast the other that the dark green foliage in the background there is not much color.

In the screenshot below I converted this to black and white and moved the green slider to the left to darken the background further. Using the curves tool in Photoshop I darkend the shadows and midtones a small bit to improve the contrast. I then selected the torii gate to used the curves tool to to brighten mainly the midtones as it was too dark and getting lost in the shadows. Next I selected the rock in the lower left quadrant that had a very bright lighting on it and lowered the exposure as it was a distraction pulling our eye off of the subject. Lastly, I took it in to Topaz Photo AI for a small bit of denoise and sharpening.

I hope this gives you something to consider.

Best wishes, 

Mike S. - Senior Critic