"Fall Finale"

Is the sky blue? To my eyes it certainly is! So often, however, scenes like this will record the sky as a washed out gray or white because it is so much brighter than the balance of the scene. When I took this photo, I knew the sky would be a problem if I wanted it to appear as I remembered it. I distinctly remember being able to see the little wisps of clouds as well, but the RAW file almost shows no trace of clouds. Without an accurate sky, the intention of this photo would be lost. The blues in foliage photography are so important because they add the color contrast that made the scene so intense when I witnessed it. In order to bring the blues back into the two dimensional media, I took several exposures well underexposed and then blended them back in during post-pro. Even then, I had to select the sky and change the blend mode to multiply to get the blue deep enough. After finishing up, I still considered this blue to be rather light, but without it, I don't think the image could convey my experience!

interesting your thoughts about blue cast in the sky. it was exactly this autumn when i experienced the same thing: that there are visible blue colors in the scene, and there in the field i thought that on the final image a lot of people will think that it is added or appeared by post processing. this fall i witnessed some colors and tones which will be hardly to believe for most viewers. i will post these pictures in a few days.

your image is appealing from the start because of technical perfection. color contrast is stunning. composition is very good. i hope it will not discourage you that is way underrated again. that's it, it is not enough to produce quality pictures, you need people who have the eyes to appreciate it. all the best.

I like this landscape capture and also your about, very interesting note about the blue sky, the lighting here is so well balanced and so the DOF of very great return details wise, the colors. specially the forest at the fore ground are very vivd and adding a pleasant atmosphere to the appearance of this image.

Thank you for sharing it and wishing you all of the best.

Great image Mark, it looks like Conway summit area.  I like the gradual change in foliage from green to yellow to orange, good mixture through out the scene.

Sometimes you need to ask yourself is the color blue more cyan or purple, it's those two that mix to create blue.  Many times I like to process the sky by desaturating the cyan and darkening them at the same time because you'll begin to notice a green sneaking up on you if you don't.  Color management, what an extra pain in the butt!

Thanks Zsolt, Rashed and Steve! Actually, the blue in some way is added n post pro, or should I say pulled from the bland RAW file. It's there, just needs to be coaxed. You're right Steve, the cyan can get a little heavy and then you get some green tint, which this image is close to that. I will try your processing suggestion, but the color of the sky here seems to be consistent with what I witnessed. Thanks all!!

Beautiful! Like Steve wrote, I like the leaf color transitions. Also the warm-to-cold in the fore to background.