First I made a tree from scratch in Sapling, using the leaf materials from the bush exercise. Then I used the presets (my version of Blender may need to be updated; it’s got different menus and presets than the one Matt’s using) to make some small alterations on a Japanese Maple. I added a noise texture to the trunk material and a translucent color mix into the leaves to give them some depth. Honestly, I like both. Final render is 128 on the first test and 60 on the second.
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Both are good but I prefer the second 
On the first the first tree gives me the impression that its too far away, or a little out of scale. On the second the colors and the style of the tree combined better.
But it’s just my personal opinion.