Digital Filters for Fall Foliage

[sravan]

I am planning to go to New Hampshire this weekend for Fall photos. My previous trips for fall foliage haven't

given me very good results and i think that was in part because i did not take a Polarizing filter. The colors

when i looked at back on my computer were washed out browns and not as vivid as i remember the scenes. So this

time i am packing a Polarizing filter along with a T/S lens (90mm is all i have) to capture the best detail i can

at the scene.

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What my question here is more to do with the post processing. I have been palying a lot in lightroom and

photoshop with all the default controls and filters and while i can with a lot of time and practice make some of

my old photos pop, it is a lot of effort. Recently i got the NIK Color efex Pro demo version and have been

playing with the filters and while I found some good for portraits, I cannot find any thing good for fall foliage.

<p>

What Digital filters do you use to punch up the colors. I personally like the deep saturation as in Velvia in

the film world and some of my best fall photos are in Velvia. What best to get those looks?

<p>

Any examples of images would be helpful as i feel that knowing what you want the end photo to look like will help

in framing the shot originally also.

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BTW, Any other suggestions on what to pack? Should i pack Split ND filters or should i just shoot RAW and do

pseudo-HDR on it? I dont like to do true HDR on landscapes due to the movement of leaves etc. Never could get

good results :).

[stemked]

<p>I would suggest a Circular Polarizer, maybe ND gradient, and possibly an Enhancing filter, especially if you think the colors aren't going to be all that good. Probably can get a similar effect in photoshop though.</p>

[colin carron]

<p>I would look at adjusting levels in post-processing and maybe slightly tweaking colour saturation though this last is to be used sparingly. Below is an example where adjusting levels has been used to adjust the brightness and contrast to more like what I remember the scene as. This was domne in PS Elements II so nothing fancy.</p>

<p>Another thing to look at is to make the most of capturing the colour in camera. This can be difficult on dull days but a little under-exposure, maybe a third of a stop or two thirds of a stop, can produce more saturated colours. Polarisers can be useful but may not make a lot of difference in cloudy conditions.</p><div></div>

[www.philwinterphotography.]

<p>I like to stack a warming filter and an enhancing filter on the lens. To me, that's easier and gives better results that messing around in post. A good circular polarizing filter will work well too, particularly if there is bright blue sky and clouds in the scene.</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>I would rarely use a filter for shooting fall foliage. (Just returned from a shoot last week and will go again in a day or so.) In some situations a polarizer can help you control reflections on leaves, but that is about it.</p>

<p>With digital cameras I would also avoid the use of any filter for color adjustment purposes in virtually all situations. Instead shoot raw mode and made your color adjustments in post. This is not only quite simple in most cases, but it is much more powerful and gives you much more precise and subtle control. Example: Think of a typical situation in which the scene includes both shaded areas lit only by blue light from the sky and other areas illuminated by direct sun. A warming filter will overdo the saturation in the sunlit areas, but in post you can apply the effect selectively to only the areas that need it.</p>

<p>A common problem that many have with fall colors is that they don't use the version of their camera's histogram display that shows the separate color channels, instead perhaps only viewing the general luminosity channel. The problem is that fall colors often are very strong in the red channel and weak in the green/blue channels. The luminosity display averages these channels and fails to tell them that the red channel is blowing out.</p>

<p>Another problem is in relying on automatic white balance controls. AWB attempts to bring the scene to a sort of predicted average balance of the colors - but in a scene that correctly is unbalanced this can produce a horrible mess. Your beautiful red, orange, and yellow leaves will move toward more neutral colors and other parts of the scene can end up grossly blue.</p>

<p>Careful adjustments, targeted by way of masks if you use Photoshop, to curves are also often very useful to control luminosity levels and to increase the "pop" of some elements of these images.</p>

<p>Dan</p>

[brian_reischl]

<p>What Dan just said was very good. I'd second his thoughts on polarizers.</p>

<p>Filters aside, remember that foliage is particularly sensitive to the direction of the light. Front lit foliage usually looks dull and boring. Backlight will make it much more vivid. Sidelighting can work sometimes as well. </p>

<p>In post processing, I use curves for general toning on everything. After that, blending modes can give you interesting results. Try creating an adjustment layer with no actual changes (eg, a "curves" layer with a straight line) and change the blend mode to Soft Light or Multiply. They're strong effects, so remember to try dropping the opacity and/or masking out areas if necessary. </p>

<p>If you're up for something more complex, a digital version of the Orton Effect can work well with some shots. There are a lot of tutorials out there for it. If your version of Photoshop supports Smart Objects use them instead of Layers, as they'll make it much easier to tweak the effect. </p>

<p>The 5 shots <a href="http://cinchphotography.com/Packages/AutumnGold/11535696_3ppGF#811427098_5awBW">in this gallery</a> have some of all of these techniques applied in varying amounts. I think it's obvious which are more heavily manipulated. :) </p>

[randywilson]

<p>Under clear skies, do your shooting early or late to get low angle light, and try to find situations where you can shoot back lit foliage. Cloudy days allow you to shoot all day. And always, always use the polarizing filter.</p>

<p>One thing you can do in post processing that might help is to get the color balance right. Often that is enough to restore the vibrant colors you remember seeing. Often if the color balance is too blue the colors in the image will look drab and washed out. </p>

<p>If you're using Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw, use the blacks slider to bring the left edge of your histogram farther to the left to help deepen the dark areas in the image, especially if you're following the recommended practice for digital photographing of shooting to the right. This will also enhance the vibrance and saturation of the colors.</p>

<p>You might also gently nudge the vibrance slider to the right some. Also, in Camera Raw there are camera pre-set modes such as Landscape, Camera Standard, or Camera Faithful which may enhance the saturation some.</p>

<p>As a last resort, you could use the individual color sliders under the HSL tab in Camera Raw or Lightroom to adjust the hue, saturation, or luminance of different colors.</p>

 

[david_henderson]

<p>After many years of shooting foliage on Velvia/Provia (difficult) I returned from Colorado a couple of days ago with an unreasonably large number of bright fall colour images made on a canon 5D Mkii. I found that I needed a polariser when the sun was shining directly onto my scene, to reduce or lose reflections from the leaves and so cut down on glare. In other conditions the polariser did nothing positive at all, either acting just as a ND filter ( not good when the aspens were trembling) or in very dull compositions the polarisers tended to reduce brightness even when compensating for the light lost. So a polariser is indispensible, but not to be used all the time. There is a downside. As well as getting rid of unwanted reflections/glare the polariser will intensify the blue in the sky.- sometimes to the point that it looks unnatural and requires work in post to reduce saturation and increase lightness to the point where the sky and the rest of the scene look balanced. </p>

<p>The only other filters I used were ND grads, and then only to reduce the exposure of skies relative to the scenery beneath. I really don't want dull underexposed foliage, and I'll do what I need to do with the sky to get the exposure I want on the foliage. I tend to look for a mix of "landscapes with fall foliage" and details of and under the trees. Naturally I use the grads for the former.</p>

<p>One final thing- when the foliage is light and bright I prefer to underexpose bright yellows by a half stop, and find that this makes it easier to get the eventual exposure I want. </p>

<p> </p>

[john_macpherson]

<p>Change your white balance from AWB to Cloudy and you'll fall in love all over again. It's that simple.</p>

[richard_thompson1]

<p>Not a filter expert, and have not used the enhancing filter. However, it works by selectively removing bands of color. I'm sure you can find details on the net. This is entirely different than simply changing color balance with e.g. a warming filter.</p>

<p>Consider using the enhancing filter for the same reason you use a polarizing filter. You can't create the effect in post process.</p>