Burgundy Leaves

I managed to get out for a photography wander this weekend, so once again I brought my trusty flash gun with me. I also took my tripod with me to hold the flashgun so I could use some off camera flash.

I spotted some dead leaves hanging from a tree that amazingly hadn’t fallen off despite all the wind we’ve been having! So I set up the flash gun on the tripod to the right and slightly behind the camera. I set the camera to fire the flash remotely; I took a few test shots and decided that the best effect was created without any flash exposure compensation. I had the camera in aperture priority and I preselected an aperture of F5.6 to ensure the depth field was short but the leaf was still sharp. The camera paired this with a shutter speed of 1/60^th of a second.

Editing the photo I decided to increase the contrast and boost the shadows, I did this to make the photo look more dynamic and to make the photo look less flat. I also reduced the colour tone, by doing this the reds become boosted and enhance the burgundy colours of the dead leaves. I didn’t change the composition else because I was happy with how I had framed the photo.

Overall I’m very happy with this photo, I like how I had framed the image and I really like the effect I had created with the flash gun. Hopefully I will get another chance to go on a photography wander at some point this week.

Mat