“Silent Sentinel” was created by Jacqueline Kozak on a TPPA outing to Caddo Lake. The image captured with a Sony Alpha 7 III on Manual Mode at F3.5 at 1/250 at 100ISO at a focal length of 180mm. The afternoon was quite overcast which provided flat lighting and low contrast. This was fortunate in that she was able to hold onto highlights and shadows during editing. To create the final image, the color image was desaturated and left in RGB mode to individually control the color channels in an effort to increase the dynamic range. Curves were used to make the shadow areas darker and to increase the highlights on the tree to separate it from the background scene. Much care was taken to not push the highlights too far and to hold onto the detail of the decaying tree. The image won a Texcellence Award and was selected as “Best Scenic Image” at the 2023 TPPA Annual Photographic Competition.
