P#19 Q6A: How Should I Compose My Photographs to Bring Out the Best Fall Colors in the Pictures I Take?
If you want to bring out the brightest fall colors in the photographs you shoot, Jim Zuckerman has some helpful advice
During our interview I asked Jim Zuckerman how our listeners could get the brightest and best fall colors in the fall photographs they take. He offered some really great advice and a somewhat surprising answer.
Tweak It Later
Jim Zuckerman: If by "best" you mean the most saturated, in the past I would have talked about different kinds of film. Now we don't shoot film and everybody's shooting digital, so the answer becomes very simple. All you have to do is go into Photoshop and increase the saturation of the color, in the hue/saturation dialogue box.
Adjust Your ISO
The other thing that I recommend is to shoot fall colors with a low ISO. I would recommend 100, and definitely not more than 200. This will minimize digital noise and it will also improve the quality of your pictures. They'll be sharper and will have better contrast. The overall color will just be better.
If you want richer color or more subtle color, the hue/saturation dialogue box in Photoshop is the best place to go.
Audri Lanford: Should we turn off auto white balance to get richer and fuller colors?
Jim Zuckerman: I'm glad you asked that. I'm not a fan of auto white balance. The only time I use it is when I shoot florescent illumination.
I would recommend shooting on daylight white balance. During the middle of the day, there will not be that much difference between auto white balance and daylight, but if you're going to shoot sunrise and sunset, there will be a significant difference.
The reason is because auto white balance "corrects" the golden tones of sunrise and sunset to white light, although "corrects" might not be the right word.
Audri Lanford: Yeah, definitely in quotes, right?
Jim Zuckerman: Yes, "corrects" is definitely in quotes because when we see a sunset, it's not white light. It's yellowish and that's what we love about sunrises and sunsets -- that golden light. It's so beautiful.
When you shoot auto white balance, you're going to get nice texture on the ground and nice backlighting, but you've lost the gold. That's why I shoot on daylight white balance. If you don't, you lose the gold.
To Sum Up
If you want to bring out the best colors in your pictures, it's really not so much what you do before and during the photo shoot, but rather what you do afterwards. According to Jim Zuckerman, Photoshop is the answer for bringing out the best fall colors in the pictures you take, and a low ISO and avoiding auto white balance are also two key things to remember.
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