For a long time I wanted to take the picture of tree branches against a dark sky. On our Easter trip I finally found a tree standing by its lonesome, sunilight hitting its branches. I used a red filter and thanks to the low sun got a nice gradient effect.

Unedited picture:


Picture after cleaning the background, emphazising contrast and adding a soft light layer with a white to black gradient to enhance the effect.


Same tree taken with a wide lens, large aperture, my favourite setting: