Autumn isn’t a date on the calendar. It’s a feeling. When the mornings are cooler, the skies are bluer, and the leaves start hinting at the upcoming color display, you just know autumn is around the corner. I am excited to say that feeling has finally come to my small part of the world.
A favorite fall photographic subject is the colorful foliage with its bright reds, oranges, and yellows. When all the right conditions come together, the colors can be almost overpowering.
Many people believe a bright sunny day is the best condition in which to photograph autumn foliage. However, once the picture is made, they are often disappointed by the results in which the exquisite colors seem to be bleached out. This occurs because the bright light of a sunny day creates extreme contrast ranges which digital sensors simply cannot capture. The highlights will either be overexposed, or the shadows will become too dark. No matter what camera adjustments the photographer makes, the resulting photograph will almost always be disappointing.
The secret to capturing autumn colors is to photograph on overcast days. The clouds provide for soft even lighting that keeps the contrast low and lets the colors really shine through. If waiting for a cloudy day isn’t an option, other possibilities are to wait for a cloud to pass in front of the sun or to find a shaded area in which to shoot. Regardless of the approach, the idea is to reduce the scene’s contrast to a range the digital sensor can handle.
I took this photograph on an overcast day at Cedar Falls in Petit Jean State Park. I liked how the yellow leaves really stood out against the darker background of the rock wall behind the tree. There were a couple of conditions that were very important in creating this picture. First, of course, was the soft diffused lighting that kept the contrast low.
The second thing that was helpful was the lack of any wind. This was extremely important because the rock wall was a good fifty feet behind the leaves, and I was looking up at the leaves at an angle. To ensure everything was sharp, I had to use a medium aperture to ensure adequate depth of field. I needed a fairly long shutter speed to maintain proper exposure given the smaller aperture. Had there been the slightest hint of movement in the air, the leaves would have been blurred, and the picture would have been a failure.
Processing adjustments to the image were minimal. The most significant enhancement made was opening the image in Photoshop and applying Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 filter to convert it to black and white. I then applied a layer mask to the picture and, using Photoshop’s brush tool, carefully removed the filter effect from the leaves. This allowed the leaves to really stand out and shine against the background.
Settings: 70mm, 1 sec, f/11, ISO 400