Autumn Fire
One of the aspects of fall and winter in the mountains that can be absolutely unforgettable are the brilliant sunsets over the misty mountains. Burnt orange, vibrant reds, nearly neon pinks roaring to life in a sky that was dull and grey only a few minutes before, then almost as fast as it began, the sunset is over, and you’re standing in the dark with a memory. Of course, if you’re a photographer you captured that memory, and brought it back to life to share with the rest of the world, doing your best to keep an even exposure, and perhaps toning down some of those vibrant colors of the sky just to give it a lifelike feel.
When you first start editing photos almost all of us over saturate, over clarify, really crank in those numbers giving these vibrant photos. Of course give it a few minutes of looking away, and suddenly the photo you were so proud of melts into dismal failure. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you ask any photographer how their edits were when they started out, they will say something vague about a learning curve, or needing to refine it. We all have to work on the editing, its one of the more difficult parts of the process after you get out of the field.
I don’t have a magic wand to help you improve your editing, but i do have a few points of advice for you. Easy to manage, and slightly frustrating pieces of advice. Number one, there are no shortcuts here, it takes time, even I seven years in am still learning [though admittedly I can be a bit of a slow learner]. Number 2, go out find yourself multiple compositions each time you go out to shoot. You’re going to need lots of work to fill your time! Number 3, edit one composition at a time. Get it to where you are in the moment happy, and go do something else for a while [an hour or two]. When you come back to the photo, look at it, see if you can refine it. Not big edits, small things. When you’ve done that repeat one more time. Take a break, come back to it. Do this for each photo, take your time. Number 4, spend a fair bit of time researching different editing techniques, then trying them out. It will take a while, but if you enjoy editing at all, it’s an important part of the whole process!
Until Next Time!
Aperture: f8
ISO: 160
SS: 1/1.6th
Focal: 27mm
Fujinon 16-55mm
