Harris Lake / Rist Camp ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
maple tree in my backyard ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone
Autumnal color is pretty much at full blossom and the saturation-to-the-max picture makers are out and about in full-tilt way over the top picture making, exaggerated color / saturation / contrast wise.
One picture maker in particular, who shall remain anonymous because I have always respected his picture making father with whom I had more than a passing working acquaintance, has been picturing the place where I live. The resulting pictures, so over the top color / saturation / contrast wise, bear no resemblence to the reality here about. And, when posted online, the pictures are receiving near fawning adoration. So be it, however ....
.... much of the adoration revolves around the notion of "I love that place." and similar expressions. My question would be, "What place? Would it be the fantasy place depicted in the pictures or would be the actual place?" Cuz the actual place looks nothing like the fantasy place.
To be fair, the picture maker in question may not be in pursuit of making realistic pictures. He/she may be in pursuit of the making of pictures which are far-fetched "impressions" of the place. Pictures which will be admired for their art sauce technique, not for their representational accuracy. That is most certainly not my thing but, as Julian's grandmother said, "For every pot there's a lid."
All of that written, to my eye and sensibilities, there are so many picture making opportunities to picture autumnal color without having to resort to the color saturation slider. I mean, nature does a pretty good job of entertaining us all on its own. Why do so many picture makers have to mess with it? Why can't they leave well enough alone?
RE: the Lake Harris / Rist Camp picture. It is as close to the reality of the scene as the medium and its apparatus will allow. I actually desaturated the image and adjusted the yellow content-in LAB Color Space-inasmuch as the iPhone can over saturation yellows. FYI, the view is looking to the north. The sunset was was to the west, stage left in the picture. The sun had set low enough that the foliage was not illuminated but that the clouds were.
RE: the maple tree in my backyard picture was created by using just the Red Channel + a few adjustments-converted to a Grayscale file-from my original RGB file.