Beth and I were on a mission to create fall color water portraits. Shooting at Lake LaShane was not part of the fall color plan. In advance of the day of our shoot I scouted several lakes, steams,and rivers in the area to find the best fall color. Only one location had the kind of fall color by the water that I wanted, Slip Bluff Lake.
Beth Presler, Slip Bluff Lake.
The best light at Slip Bluff Lake for what we wanted to do is late afternoon so we went and created images in the late afternoon light. When the sun dropped behind the trees on the bluff on the west side of the lake our light was gone. We wanted to shoot some more, so we drove to Lake LaShane where the sun would still be shining on the water.
Lake LaShane has evergreens on the west side of the lake so there is no fall color. With the sun setting the trees were a sea of black, so they are only visible at the top of some of the images. The lake has a really gooey bottom that sucks at your feet. It took a while for Beth to make her way out into the lake. Once she got in position we created the image at the top of this article. This image is a first. The portraits and landscapes I post are true to the original scene. But I wanted to see what the new Adobe “Neural Filters” were all about, so I tried one on this image. The colors are dramatically enhanced. It is one of our favorite images of the day.
As the sun dropped we continued to create images. As the light faded Beth became a silhouette. I put a flash on the camera and experimented with different fill flash settings. I manually set the aperture and shutter speed for the light on the water, and then I dialed the flash intensity up and down to adjust the light on Beth. This is one of the last images of the day.
There are more photos of Beth at these links.
Links
How to Photograph a Musician in the Cold and Snow
POTD: Beth Presler, Slip Bluff Lake