The Colors Return
The Colors Return
It’s supposed to be fall. At least that is what my calendar says.
In fact it is almost November and fall hasn’t made its usual impact on the color of the world yet. At least not in my part of central Virginia.
Yesterday I was up on the Blue Ridge Parkway with a couple of friends and there are spots where there is some actual color!
It was good to get out and hike with my camera in the company of friends.
While I haven’t had a lot of time to go through my pictures yet, this is one that immediately caught my eye and begged me to edit it.
About the Image – The Capture
Before I get to far here I give you a far warning: this is for those who would like to know how I went about creating this image.
I was once again shooting my trusty Sony NEX 6. The lens of choice this time was the E-mount 50mm f 1.8 with Optical Steady Shot… The camera was on a tripod. I was shooting at ISO 200.
Any more I pretty much always shoot my images bracketed. That is I shoot a rapid burst of 3 images, one with an exposure compensation of -1, one at 0, and the third at +1. This was the case in this instance as well.
I focused using manual focus and the live view on the back of the camera, and fired away.
About the Image – The Processing
The RAW files were brought into Lightroom where I selected the one that would work with what I needed it to do. Basic edits were made in Lightroom before I journeyed to Photoshop for a bit more intensive edits.
Actually I didn’t do a whole lot inside of Photoshop, except use a Topaze filter to “smooth” the details of the shot out, making things look a bit more silky. I then stacked a “Camera RAW filter” on top of the layer stack and fiddled with blending modes and opacity till I was just about to where I wanted to be with the image.
Back inside of Lightroom I went into Nik’s Color Efex and added a bit of “Glamour Glow” and a one other effect. I can’t remember which one it was…
Then it was back to Lightroom to add a title to the image and export for the web.
And there you have it. The creation and processing of a Maple Leaf Image titled – “The Colors Return.”