Karlynography

Autumn Glow 1

Peak fall foliage in East Tennessee

Peak fall foliage in East Tennessee
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Canon EOS 50D

settings

Aperture f/5.6 ISO 1600 Shutter 1/125 Focal Length 120/1

upload_date

Mar, 2015

Views

547

Likes

+12

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Behind The Lens

Location

Traveling along Little River Gorge Rd, south and west of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, the Little River runs through the Great Smoky Mountain National Forest where it rumbles and tumbles through some of the most beautiful mountainous landscapes. The key to getting photos along this, and any other river frankly, is to climb your way safely down to the river's edge and set up the tripod.

Time

I actually felt like my timing was off during this trip because the peak fall foliage season had been a week prior to our arrival, therefore, I was a little concerned that color was going to be an issue, however, I learned quickly that, since the river was a bit lower and, thereby, a bit more protected from the frost, the color change was delayed slightly which gave me "perfect timing". I normally try to shoot in early to mid-morning, and again, with the lack of light in these ravines, mid-morning was perfect with an angle of sun rays coming through the trees perfectly.

Lighting

Early in the day for me is always best as it is a gentle light, but you have to really experiment with the settings and be sure that your equipment does well in lower light shots. Getting the perfect shot rarely happens on the first release of the shutter (at least for me) and if I take the time to adjust from the last shot I ALWAYS surprise myself with the next shot. It's truly amazing what one small adjustment can do. In these types of settings, the propensity to overexpose or underexpose is common. The sun on the water creating hot spots will get you every time. Find the sweet spot between the hot and the cold areas of your photo so that during post processing, you can pull back the hot, overexposed areas and pull out the cold areas without getting the grain and noise that comes with lightening up your shadows. On this particular shot my settings were: Aperture: f/5.6 ; ISO: 1600 ; Shutter Speed: 1/125 ; Focal Length: 120/1. With that said, I have never been successful taking the settings from a similar photo and used it on a shot and been entirely happy with the outcome...Nature always forces me to adjust because nature is NEVER the same....but this is a good place to start.

Equipment

I was using my Canon EOS 50D with a Canon 70-200 lens. I did not use a flash or any other lighting assist...this was done all natural. And, though I mention the use of a tripod in my previous paragraph, I did not use a tripod on this shot. The hike to this location was steep and my tripod wasn't one of the new, fancy, small tripods of today so I left it behind and used breath control to reduce my movements. I was also using the stabilization built into my lens, however, I got lucky because the stabilizers can reduce the quality of your photographs to some degree so I try not to use it much.

Inspiration

The Great Smoky Mountains in the fall, in and of itself, is inspiring and draws me in every year regardless of the fact that I have been there many times....there is never a time that I have been disappointed. The fall foliage represents the shedding of old skin preparing to sleep through the winter and bloom into newness and youth, fresh and green in the spring.

Editing

I did do post processing through Lightroom (which is my favorite). I usually, will adjust the curves first and then work with exposure and shadows. I also pull out the colors individually but not too much. Even though this photo is really rich with color, it really was naturally colorful enough. I really don't like over saturated photos that look unnatural and over processed. I also like to sharpen up the lines moderately and pull down the black point just a bit as it creates a little bit of the dramatic effects of the contrast.

In my camera bag

I primarily shoot with a Canon 5D Mark III and a Canon 60D as a back up. I have a variety of lenses ranging from fixed 100mm & 50 mm, a wide angle EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, a Canon Zoom EF 24-70mm f/4L IS USM, a Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Telephoto Zoom Lens, and a Canon EF 24-105 Zoom IS USM. One of my dream lenses is the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Lens. I will be saving up for one of those for awhile though. I also have a couple of compact tripods, a Canon 600EX II-RT Speedlite flash, a few batteries, a ton of memory cards with varying read/write speeds...which, by the way, is incredibly important (the speed in which it processes the picture). That is where the more expensive cards separate themselves from the cheap ones. I also have some basic studio lighting for those times when the environment's light is not sufficient for photography (but I really don't use these much).

Feedback

Practice, Practice, Practice! I have taken a million photos through trial and error, deleting and formatting disks. Lighting, exposure and timing is absolutely key with photography. It will make you or break you. Thankfully, landscapes (in this example) are fairly forgiving because you have a little time to make adjustments, however, anything like capturing wildlife, moving targets, etc., can be frustrating at first. My entire life has been through trial and error and I have found that the best products of my life came with the labors of passion, hard work and research. This photograph took patience and the river gave that back to me.

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Karlynography

Karlynography

Autumn Glow 1

Peak fall foliage in East Tennessee

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow Karlynography

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