A few weeks ago it was peak fall foliage in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico and I spent a few mornings photographing in the area.
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I photographed this scene on a chilly but crystal clear morning. In this particular aspen grove all of the leaves were a bright golden yellow which certainly stood out from the deep blue sky. I was looking for a shot a little different from the traditional “lay-on-the-ground-and-look-up” shot. So I stood at the edge of the grove instead of inside it and I centered my composition on the tallest tree.
My Canon 5DII camera was on a tripod and I used my Canon 17-40mm lens with no polarizing filter. I took a series of three exposures bracketed 2 stops each thinking I was going to need to create an HDR image due to the wide tonal range I had while shooting into the sun.
But by using Capture One Pro 7 to process my RAW file I was able to create an HDR type image from a single frame. In fact this image was enhanced completely in Capture One Pro 7 and I only needed Photoshop to clone out a problematic dust spot between two branches.
Interested in learning how to use the RAW converter and catalog software Capture One Pro? Take a look at my workshop schedule to see when I will be teaching it next.