Summers Fade

There’s a majesty about autumn in the Appalachian mountains. There’s a reason leaf season draws people from around the world, why traffic tends to increase dramatically during those fleeting weeks. The awe, the beauty, the natural magic of the seasonal change. I’ve spoken to people from all four corners of the globe while up on those old dusty roads during the full fall colors. I’ve seen beauty, I’ve seen tears, and I’ve seen peace, all for the sight of a tremendous sunset over fall colors. One cannot quantify the beauty of it all, and try as we might, us photographers can only capture the sight, not the wind in your hair, the sun on your face, the autumn scent tickling your nose. At the very least, we can leave you with a memory, and share it with the world.

This is my second attempt at editing this composition, my previous attempt, while looks vibrant and colorful had some issues for me. I always felt that I could improve on it, but my skill level simply wasn’t there yet. You may of noticed I have spent a whole lot of time recently working on older compositions, and there’s a reason for this, one you yourself may want to consider. Working, and perfecting a editing style, and workflow takes time, effort and energy. As you work as a photographer, you collect images, rather than just throw them all out when you’re done, keep them. Hold onto those images you thought didn’t work and work on them. Not right now, work on them in a few months, in a year, in five years. Ready made compositions for you to just work with.

As for what I did differently with this image, it’s fairly straight forward really. I decreased the shadows and brightened the image, brought my highlights down to darken the sky. Masked the sky, Midground and main subject separately and desaturated a bit. Increased the blacks on the image slightly, and then adjusted my curve while adjusting the haze. That’s when I took a break form this image, and after a day I came back to it, and added slight dodge and burn to help build some depth into the image. After all of that, I took a break from it one more time, when I came back to it, I still enjoyed the work that had been done. All that you see here is really just a control of light and shadow.

Until Next Time!

Aperture: f8
ISO: 160
SS: 1/3rd
Focal: 34mm

Fujinon 16-55mm