What the heck am I doing wrong!?

The last couple nights after work I have gone out and tried to take some autumn photos. Fall is my absolute favorite time of year so I was very much looking forward to this! I swear out of all the photos I've taken I can't find ONE that I like! [:'(] First night, I felt I didn't have a wide enough lens (not much room to back up on these narrow trails) and I didn't have a polarizerfilter with (that's what I get for rushing to put it all together before work)! So, my composition stunk and it is getting a hr. before sunset anywayso in the woods, lighting is 1/2 too dark, 1/2 to bright ...errr!Plus it doesn't thrill me to walkthru woodsby myself thatI've never been in when it's getting dark!

Tonight, I had the 17-55mm and a polarizer and I went to a different county to get some shots but by the time I got there, it was even closer to sunset! [:(] I am HOPING this weekend to go much earlier and praying there will still be leaves on the trees to take pictures of! I know I took much better fall photos last yr. with my T1i and kit lens!

I haven't gone thru all of them yet, but so far these are the best of the horrible....


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4113/...b3e62f5f_z.jpg


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4087/...c12f87ed_z.jpg


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4150/...83caca07_z.jpg


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4125/...3f15ca2b_z.jpg


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4153/...71b4fe70_z.jpg


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4107/...5ca5f1b2_z.jpg


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4150/...ba90e214_z.jpg


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4113/...24858b70_z.jpg

Any advice before I go out again would be greatly appreciated!

Denise

What White Balance are you using ???? The 3rd last pic looks good. Nice bokeh and the colours seem natural. Only the 2nd one seems to look unaturally orange. For me I had a few do the same sort of thing and I only adjusted white balance to shade or sun and ended up with more satisfying shots. You'll love having the circular polarizer on to squeeze out some more colour. I have to get one for my Tamron 17-50 2.8 yet but I have them for my 10-22 and 28-135.

I like them all. We don

Am I wrong if I like several of them? :). 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are great IMO. Others can correct me if I am wrong here but to me the issue with 2/3 is lighting. The soft/warm light of the "magic" hour is causing a lack of contrast in the photos because too much is "soft/warm" color either from the foliage or the lighting. So you can be safe this weekend, :), and maybe shoot earlier in the day? One article I read advocated shooting foliage at a 90 degree to natural light. Seems to me that would be easiest to do mid-morning and mid-afternoon.


Other than that I

I did use standard for most of the photos and then I also used the "Autumn Hues" I downloaded from Canon for Picture Style. This weekend I do hope to go out mid-afternoon so maybe that will help. I know when I look at the photos of others I think WOW, that's beautiful but not on any I've taken so far. One thing is maybe because I know I had to do more than the norm for me for pp, which I hate doing because I am awful at it!


Here is the original of #3 ...


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4103/...39d5811d_z.jpg

Thanks for liking some of them and for the advice for this weekend!

Denise

All look really good.


But the location you had in #2 and #3 is great. Is the orange the actual color? The sky is kind of bland, and I don

You posted the same time I did.


On #3 what kind of metering do you use? I have taken similar pictures with my 5d mark II in live mode. By going 10x and scanning to a specific spot in the frame you can get the camera to auto adjust out and take out some darkness.

Hi Denise,


I am finally back at my own computer. I regrettedhow I phrased my post to this thread (no more midnight posts). Ultimately, I just wanted to say that I've also had issues with photographing fall colors in lower light that is typically great for other subjects. I've been more pleased with the colors in my pictures taken with moderate amounts of light.


Also, here is a link totwo of the articles I've read. You may have already seen them. If I can find the others, I'll send them to you as well.


http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=2169


http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/tutorials/fall_foliage_photography.html


And actually, Bob Atkins and the 2008 article from canon both advocate "magic hour light." Oh well.[:$] I just haven't liked my pics that are too close to sunrise/sunset prefering the pics from 1-3 hrs before/after.


Good luck this weekend.


Brant

Thanks for the links, Brant. You have been very helpful! I am planning on going out again today at about 4 (an hour and half earlier than before) and I think I am going to try a few different settings and just see what works, maybe play with the WB alittle as the canon site suggests. I did this alittle with some previous sunrise shots I took.


Thanks again,


Denise

I

Denise, Actually, I think you captured a couple of them quite well----#3 and #5; which isn

Thanks, Bob! I sure needed to be reminded of the fact that for every good shot, there can be many, many that get deleted! With the beauty of autumn around me, it

Hi Denise,


I would direct your attention back to the original #3, so that we can see what is actually going on here. It appears that the scene is backlit as we can tell by the blown out sky and the heavily shaded area over the water and the shaded area over the right side of your subject or trees. So, although you went out there to achieve the best possible lighting, it appears that it is coming from the wrong direction for your intended shot. Since, the colors of the trees are not coming out properly, you may want to consider this shot in the morning when the light will be behind you and the trees will be better illuminated.


Since the backlighting is shutting down your meter and making your subject appear dark by 1 to 1.3 exposure, you should try an add approximately +1 exposure compensation in camera.


The other thing I see, is that pics #2 & #3 are being over processed with that Autumn Hues Picture style that you had mentioned.


With the quality of the equipment that you have, plus the beautiful colors available to you, it appears that the Autumn Picture style is not necessary in this situation, because it is just making the photo appear too artificial looking. The colors are too red, so you would need to decrease the warmth by lowering the temperature towards the blue side.


As far as composition of the original #3 goes, I wasn

Hi Rich -


Your suggestions are extremely helpful!!! I probably won