Reflective fall colors

by Lori Arnold
(Salt Lake City, Utah USA)

An October sunset reflects colors into the trees onto this pool of cool water.

I took this over a year ago, and I really like it, mostly because I like the colors, and the water to me looks inviting… I am sure there is something valuable about the shot to others than myself…
C'mon Ed, just say it, I can take it… what is your opinion of the shot?

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October is a good time of year for photographers.

For those of us in the northern hemisphere we get autumnal shades; and Antipodeans can enjoy spring in bloom – everyone's happy!

The reflections in Lori's shot capture the rustic colours of autumn (or 'fall' if you're on the west of the Atlantic!). And I like the colours a lot. But that's not what I see when I look at this photo.

Unfortunately for me, the first thing I focus on is the clump of reeds at the bottom of the photo. Nice though they are, they are stealing photo real estate from the colours in the reflection.

I would have done one of two things – either have got down low to the reeds to make them a clear focal point, and have blurred colours in the background; or moved away from the reeds and filled the frame with reflections.

If getting down low it would be good to select a fairly wide aperture – sufficient to get the reeds in focus, but blur the background (a shallow depth of field). I would have thought f4 or f5.6 would be about right. Click to read more about aperture and depth of field.

Filling the frame would have made an interesting composition, but if doing this it would be worth boosting the saturation in software afterwards. Not too much (otherwise the colours break up and 'posterize'), just a bit so that the colours are emphasised.

I hope these tips are helpful, and, as always, thanks Lori for the submission,

Ed.

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