This is the entrance to a back set of trails near my home. The sun was about to set and the side lighting was really doing a number on the forest floor.
Canon 40D, EF 70-200mm f/4L USM
f7.1@ 1/40th, ISO 400
Handheld w/ fill flash
Center-weighted metering
Processed in ACR & CS3; levels and curves adjustments, toning, dodge & burn, small crop.
I really, really like this image. It has a wonderful painting-like quality to it and it looks almost Thomas Kinkade-ish to me with the light and everything. Also there is a wonderful mysterious quality to the image as the viewer moves from the light at the left and down the path into a progressively darker area before the path turns. Terrific job!
Robert, I'm just beginning to try my hand with fill flash so bare with me...
I set it to E-TTL II and then underexposed (in manual mode) by one stop. This brought up the front of the image nicely but still left the back part in deep shadow. I did a shadow/highlight adjustment to get the back half where I wanted it and then masked off the front of the image to even it out so both were properly exposed. Then I did a bit of dodging to the back trees to separate them from the shadows.
As for the toning, I have an action that I downloaded from the web called "Midnight" that deepens the general image and then adds either a black, sepia, or blue cast to the image. I chose the sepia version and that "deepened" the overall tone of the image to really give it that soft brown glow I was looking for. The sidelighting was really nice last night but just a tad harsh and this action helped me soften the whole image to give it exactly the feel I was looking for.
Hey Julie,
this is really, really nice. I love the lighting and mood.........not sure the flash did much/anything........doesn't matter......with the PP...........this turned out great!
This image finds me looking for the boogy man or the monster lurking in the bushes. Lions, tigers and bears, o my! Most excellent feel here. Well done.
Grady, if you think THIS version is scary you should see the original! Eeek!
Roman, I doubt the flash did much either but I was trying it out on everything yesterday to get a feel for how it works in different situations. This image I just happened to have it on and it went off and the histogram looked okay so I took it and ran with it. I did see a real difference in some of my macro-type images so I'll keep playing with it until I get past my "I only work in natural light" phobia. ;)