Birch Trees in Autumn

The darker sky on the right seems to intensify the yellow foliage.

 

This year, October sunshine made for perfect awesome autumn views with vibrant warm colours to be captured. No flowers required – foliage is everything!

Endless Hues

I just had to get out and get all these endless hues of reds, oranges, yellows, pinks, purples, magentas, rusts etc. etc. into the camera. Just look at them! Aren’t they beautiful?

Here are some “slightly” more close up pictures:

Autumn Heat 2

Yellows and oranges, some rusts and a touch of green here and there.

 

 Autumn Inflamed

Strong reds dominate this picture with some proper green for contrast and black shadows to bring out the colours.

 

Sunshine

Sunshine intensifies and illuminates all colours and makes leaves and petals nearly transparent in places. It also creates strong dark-bright contrasts with deep, nearly black shadows. This is great for depth and brings out the colours even more than the sunshine alone.

 Autumn Foliage

Strong bright and dark contrasts in spite of more subtle hues.

 

Autumn Light

Transparency of the foliage, photographed against the light.

 

Editing:  Composition and Colour

Composition

Of course I edit nearly all my photos to improve composition and colour. No picture is any good without a good composition. The most successful pictures are the ones with great composition. Most people have a feeling for it and just know what a good picture is when they see it.

Autumn Heat 3

Pictures like this need a focal point which is on the bright yellow leaf above and right of the centre. The intense colour would draw the eye to this point. Or, at least, it should! Does it??? It does for me anyway. Great dark-bright contrasts, too!

 

Colour

Colour, however, is more individual than composition. Everybody has their own preferences.

Cameras rarely get the colours right, especially the vibrant colours, or lots of different blues. Turquoise shades are another headache. At least, this is my experience.

I find unedited photos generally rather pale although that can be great, depending on the content of a picture or the intention of the artist or photographer. Like this one for example:

The Windswept Hill, old church ruin

I kept this photo very pale as it underlines the airiness and the brilliant light of the scene.

 

But, as I like vibrant (or catchy) colours, I often go more to the other extreme and make them more catchy than they are in reality.

I also upload lots of my photos to the Catchy Colours group on flickr. The colour intensity there is absolutely brilliant.

Autumn Colours

This is an example for intensified colours.

Autumn’s Soft Hues

Same photo as before but here I did hardly any editing. Whether people prefer one or the other, depends on personal taste.

 

For more on vibrant colours visit my blog post

“Vibrant Colours: Flowers – Fruit – Vegetables” on

https://modern-art-and-photography-henning.de/2016/02/05/vibrant-colours-flowers-fruit-vegetables/

or just visit my website for a general look around: arthenning.com

Take care!