Uncovering Hidden Color
This peaceful setting didn't look so colorful when I came upon it but it had all the makings of a nice scene. With Photoshop, I didn't add any colors ...
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This peaceful setting didn't look so colorful when I came upon it but it had all the makings of a nice scene. With Photoshop, I didn't add any colors but I did maximize the ones that were already in the scene, and it surprised me just how colorful an "ordinary" scene can be if you dig deep.
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Feb, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I captured this image at Yorba Regional park in Yorba Linda, CA. It's a long park, spanning about two miles by about a 1/4 mile wide and features two lakes, lots of pastures and numerous recreational facilities.Time
Conventional wisdom says that you're not going to get good landscape photos during the middle of the day. And, in fact, this settings was picturesque but the the lighting wasn't doing it any favors. On the positive side, the noon-ish sun created pockets of shadows and highlights but the overall scene definitely needed something.Lighting
The contrast between shadows and sunlight were what made me take this photo in the first place. It's all natural light filtering through the trees that gives the base image its biggest impact.Equipment
I captured the RAW file on a Canon 7D with my trusty Canon 24-105 4.5IS lens, which I use for most images.Inspiration
I walk through the park regularly for excercise and usually bring my camera, as the locale offers many opportunities for good photography. There were many aspects of this particular scene that caught my eye, most notably the trees' reflections in the water, the bench and the different states of the trees -- from naked branches in the foreground to full of leaves in the background.Editing
As much as I love the color green, the original green-heavy image just didn't have much stopping power. In an attempt to richen it, I moved the saturation slider in Photoshop to the right. And then some more. And then all the way to the right. It amazed me to see how much color was hidden in the scene and subsequently "freed" by this tool. Certainly this technique is not right for most images but in this case it really works well, I think.In my camera bag
Besides the Canon 7D, I sometimes have access to a Canon 5DIII -- which I use whenever I can. Additionally, I have a Canon 100-400 5.6IS that I usually use for sports and occasionally I'll borrow a Canon 16-35.Feedback
Keep an eye out for good compositions in nature and look beyond the obvious colors in the scene to visualize what could be. Also, I think you'll want to avoid people in the scene because the intense colors that make this beautiful will really play havoc with skin tones. But that may produce some very interesting results that are worth exploring on their own on more isolated and simple backgrounds.
