They All Fall Down

[Julie Kenward]

I spent about a half an hour out walking the perimeter of a nearby lake tonight. One by one, the leaves have started to fall and the colors are starting to fire up. As much as I love the reds, yellows and greens of autumn these big brown leaves have a lot of character as well. I got down low and shot from the side to get this angle. I was hoping to capture the texture and the dimensions of this leathery brown specimen.

Canon 40D, 70-200mm f/4L
f3.5 @ 1/500, ISO 320
Daylight WB, Center-weighted metering
Handheld, Dusk natural lighting

Processed in ACR & CS3. Small crop, vignette, selective sharpening and blurring, diffused glow.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Julie, nice autumn atmosphere you have created here! I like the light, the colors and the softness and vignettnig you added. I would consider cropping out the grass in the top left corner and completely fill the frame with leaf. I think it will make the image more powerful. You might run in some compositional trouble, though, because of the angle you took while shooting the leaf.
Kind regards,

- Jerry -

[Julie Kenward]

Jerry, I went back and forth on whether to leave the grass in but, in the end, felt it added to the surroundings of where the leaf was in its environment. I also think it helps to explain the funky angle of the image. I'm sure other close-ups are coming, though!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Julie good comp and you did an awesome job in PS. Love the earthy soft feel. Great lighting.

[Robert O'Toole]

The colors and texture and dark tones make it moody so Its different and I like it.

I would crop from the left a little to eliminate the dark triangle at the top left corner, but that's a personal pref.

Robert

[Hazel Grant]

Great photo. Creative approach. I agree about the dark triange, I scrolled up on my computer to your photo and stopped it just below the top so that the dark triangle was cropped out. Still had a bit of the grass (which I think is good) and yet focuses more on the leaf itself.