It was the first week of November and suddenly I had a realization that I still was not able to publish any fall foliage photos from this year. I went through the photos I took this fall but I did not like anything.
I knew I had to act, the colors of the fall were about to disappear.
I packed my gear and went for hunting. I was rewarded with the calm day without any wind and clear reflections in the water of the river. I decided to take full advantage of it concentrating all my efforts on capturing the beautiful reflections.
Shooting
The shooting was not complicated at all. There was no wind, the light was defused by the clouds which resulted in the reduced dynamic range of the scene. The only challenge was to find an interesting composition.
My goal was to capture the church across the river with its reflection in the water. I also wanted to use the tree and the foliage in the foreground as the natural frame for the composition. I walked around with the tripod and took probably 3 or 4 variations of the shot from different angles.
When I was back home in front of the computer, the featured shot was an obvious winner.
Camera: Sony a6000
Lens: Sony 16-70
Focal Length: 16mm (Hyperfocal Distance: 1.6m )
Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority (A)
ISO: 100
Aperture: F8
Shutter Speed: 1/25s
Bracketing: 3 (-1, 0, 1)
Tripod: FEISOL Tournament CT-3442 – Check my FEISOL Tournament CT-3442 Review
Ballhead: FEISOL CB-40D
Processing
I am taking full advantage of Rapid Editing PLUS workflow.
I used the Point Lobos preset from my Landscape Collection first and dialed it down to 90% later.
Next, I used TOOLKIT to boost contrast and clarity.
The Lightroom Editing Formula: Point Lobos 90% (13, 17, 32)
Photoshop: color correction, contrast, cleaning. I also used the Warp Tool to adjust the elements of the composition.
Photoshop Plugins:
- Topaz DeNoise was used to reduce digital noise.