The artist explains the process here: https://bsky.app/profile/hoeijmakers.net/post/3ktipza5duc2d

I would really love to hear your explanation why you thought the sky gave it away XD

That’s like the most regular looking sky ever XD

Ofcourse it’s photoshopped. There are virtually no digital photographers who release unedited photos. There’s always adjustments done to exposure, shadows/highlights, contrast, white balance etc.

However if you’re implying that it’s obvious to you that this has been faked then I’d love to hear your reasoning as I’m quite experienced photo editor myself and nothing stands out to me and I feel like my 15+ years of experience has trained me to spot such things.

The only thing I’m noticing is the difference in the color of the sky behind the branches but that can probably be explained by the fact that this was likely taken with a smartphone and is due to it combining multiple exposures for higer dynamic range, commonly known as HDR.

The trees are manipulated by trucks driving past them and by maintenance. This is absolutely real

Please explain more of your reasoning, since you were seemingly “proven” wrong here. Do you still maintain that the image isn’t real? Or did you mean it was simply processed in post?