Fall

[Michael Lloyd]

Around here we have to capture the colors of fall one leaf at a time :D i went for s short drive this afternoon (post rainstorm). I shot this from my pickup window.

EOS 1DMKIII Manual
600mm f4L IS w/ 1.4X TC (840mm)

1/60
f5.6
ISO 640

[Julie Kenward]

Michael, I'm reposting your image with a few suggestions. I thought it would be a great teaching tool so bare with me, okay?

Composition:

You have your main focus of the image (the red leaf) dead center. I recropped it and put it on the right "third" and gave the cropping frame a bit of a twist to move the leaf in the frame a bit. It was a small change but I think it improved the overall composition.

Next, I found the yellow leaf to be pretty in color but I couldn't see enough of it (as a viewer) to care about it so I cloned it out; again, putting more emphasis on the single red leaf.

FG/BG:

Your BG is gorgeous - nicely diffused and a beautiful complimentary color to the red leaf. I wouldn't have minded seeing a little more of the branch at the top of the frame but it's nice the way it is.

Colors:

As I stated, the green against the red is a great combination. I did find the red and magenta color channels were just a bit oversaturated - it was barely recognizeable but it was there. I opened up the hue/saturation box and desaturated each individual channel just a little and then increased the yellow channel a small amount. I think this gives the leaf a more realistic look.

DOF:

As I said, your BG is really nice but one thing that could have made the depth of field even more interesting is if you would have really honed in on those water droplets or found a leaf with droplets that were more intact. That would have really added another layer of interest to this image.

I hope you (and others) find these suggestions helpful.

[Alfred Forns]

Simple and beautiful Michael !!!

Great critique !! Strongest part is the tighter crop !!

[Michael Lloyd]

Wow... I never got a notification that anyone responded to this one. Thanks Julie. I like your suggestions and what you did. I apologize for taking so long to check this thread.