Field Scene in a Movie

Intro
Well, as my exact previous shot says, I'm always torn between tones. Now, the b/w infrared made for a very surreal, dreamlike image with the wispy grass and the power pole rising up out of it against a dark sky and white clouds. But with this color image, it gave me a cinematic feel - like a field scene in a movie. You start here, pan to the left or right, maybe towards a roadway or the rest of the field....and it goes on. I get comments on occassion that my photographs are cinematic - and I take that as a complement. I've even been told I could be a director of photography - granted, it wasn't by an industry pro, but rather, by one of my friendly watchers, but hey, what's so wrong with putting ideas in my head So, back to the cinema thing - yeah, that's another type of style I suppose I shoot for. I love good cinematography and photographic direction in a movie, that's for sure. And I certainly like the idea that there's often a story behind my photos, even if I don't go out shooting with the intent of creating one. And to me, this is just one of those shots, one of those movie scenes if you will.

Technical Comments
Really simple setup on this one. I was already prepping for my infrared shot, but I just knew this'd be a great color as well. So I setup at uber sharp settings - f/13 aperture. Got the focus set, double checked composition, and snapped. Nothing too technical, I was in aperture priority - usually serves me well, and since my sky wasn't ridiculously bright, I didn't need to spot meter and average. That's really all there is to it.

Oh, and it is true, using a tripod helps a lot

Post Process
Going back to that tonality thing for a second, I've received questions on how I get this type of tone (or similar tone) in my photos. I've also been told that, in similarly toned photos, there's way too much Photoshopping going on (as if only Photoshop was the reason it looked good). Well, hate to be spoiling people's fun, but there really isn't that much going on with this shot. Just a few steps on this - shift towards green tint and warm white balance, desaturation to -50, -60, and an increase in shadows / contrast if necessary (I sometimes decrease them depending on the lighting situation). All of this takes place in Camera RAW, and all of it takes about 30 seconds. I even have the preset saved, so now I just have to click an option, and in a couple seconds, I've essentially got my tones. Finished off with a slight vignette and I think I underexposed. Warm white balances tend to brighten a photo up across the value range.

Other Comments
Most of my comments in regards to this image were already made in the intro - so yeah, nothing more to say.