Fall colors - did I go overboard?

[RKEnnis]

Here are some shots from Lost Maples.

I used the Adobe "Landscape" D300 camera profile in Lightroom as a starting point. It resulted in some pretty saturated color. You think I went overboard with the saturation?

[1]


[2]


[3]


[4]


[5]

[janetg]

nah- i like the saturation -

[dlbdata]

Very nice shots. I am a saturation junky......

[wondershots]

Look great to me, but then I like saturation.

[kenw]

My name is Ken, and I like saturation.......

Nice stuff, Randy. I can't believe I spent most of my life in SA and never made it to Lost Maples. It's been on our short list for years but we've yet to make it.

otherwise, the 1st is my favorite. The dead tree gives the image some anchor and focus. The crossing (perspective) lines of the dead tree and the top right limb add balance and eye movement and framing. Together they pull me into the scene. This one is really well done. Top drawer. The saturation is near perfect, not overdone in the least/

#2, 3 need something to give scale, placement by including some more of the ground as well as a sense of balance. Cropping might add the balance these need. Again, the saturation is fine.

#4 is a favorite as well, the reflectiing water makes this one standout. Somehow I feel it needs some more contrast (or something, i'm not sure what) to make it truly pop. The dark large rock might be cropped out to diminish the power it absorbs in the image along with some of the foreground. A polarizer may have helped, or maybe not. I wouldn't mind even MORE saturation.....Here's a potential HDR candidate!

#5 is a neat concept but suffers from the double-edged sword of shooting into the sun. While it can (and does here) really add some drama especially with the refractions, into the sun shots often lack depth and contrast due to the strong light within the image. Some post work here may get this one to take off and fly. More saturation is going to simply amplify the refractions and increase their distraction. Allowing the refractions to be more subtle and become less dominant would be a goal imho. Layers could be used (?) to pull up the saturation of the overall image and drop that of the refractions. maybe.

[RKEnnis]

Thanks to everyone for the comments!

kenw:
I agree that 2 and 3 sort of need something, but I couldn't articulate what. I may go back and tweak the crop a bit.

On number 4, I have a 8x10 crop that addresses your concern about the large boulder in the foreground. I prefer the 5x7 crop personally, but others who have seen both crops tend to prefer the 8x10. I wish I'd had my tripod, I would have shot this one with multiple exposures. I may try a pseudo HDR with the single RAW exposure I have.

On number 5, I knew I'd have problems with contrast, even as I was shooting it. But the scene was so striking I couldn't resist. I wonder what I could have done at shoot time to mitigate this. Maybe multiple exposure, and blend in PS, but again, I didn't have my tripod.

[Teddington]

Nope, they look good to me.

[jeffkohn]

I don't think you went overboard with saturation at all. Lost Maples is actually a tough place to shoot, backgrounds are busy and it's hard to create depth. The colorful leaves are what really make an impression when visiting, so emphasizing that in your images can help recreate the experience a little more effectively IMHO.