by Thibaut Pawlas

After spending time outdoors witnessing and recording the wonders of Fall, it is time to select and edit our favorite images. For most of us, colors are the main reason why we love this season; however, it is also one of the main challenges we face when editing our Fall photographs. 

In this article, I will share with you a few thoughts and guidelines to help you process your Fall raw files, focusing on colors. The goal here is to give you a basic understanding of color and to introduce the tools at your disposal in your raw editing program to help you make your own creative decisions. 

I) RGB color space

Before diving into the editing, let’s take a few steps back to understand the digital color space. The Red, Green, Blue (RGB) color space is what we call an additive model where the red, green and blue colors are added together in different ways to produce a wide range of colors. It is the color space of the digital world. 

The HSL color wheel presents the three basic components of color, which are critical to editing our Fall photographs and creating interesting color harmonies.

• Hue is what we refer to when using the term “colors.”

• Saturation is the intensity of the hue.

• Luminance is the relative lightness or darkness.

This information is visually presented below:

We now understand that luminance has an impact on the perception of color. For this reason, we should edit exposure, contrast, and brightness first, as doing it at the end would affect the color. Darkening an image and adding contrast will not only set the mood and change the feel of the photograph, it will also increase the saturation of the colors.

II) White balance

Once we have established the exposure, contrast, and brightness using general (and eventually local) adjustments, we can move on to the white balance. White balance refers to the color temperature of your image and has two components: the Kelvin value and the tint. Adjusting the white balance, especially the Kelvin temperature, will have a tremendous impact on the Fall colors. 

Shooting conditions (overcast vs. cloudy) and camera settings (automatic white balance vs. manual) will strongly impact the color temperature. Depending on what color temperature was used in the field, we can either warm up the image and increase the Kelvin value, or cool it down and decrease the Kelvin value. A lower Kelvin value will create a blue cast, while a higher Kelvin value will create an orange one. Tint ranges from green to magenta. Of course, it can be adjusted as well.

My personal approach is often to start the color work by choosing a fairly neutral white balance. By neutral, I mean that the Kelvin value I pick should not make the image too blue or too orange. At this stage, it is very tempting to warm up the photograph significantly by using a higher Kelvin value to get the warm fall colors we seek. It could be a creative decision, but it can limit us when we move on to the HSL panel since the different hues of our photograph will be condensed into a very warm orange. Starting with a neutral white balance will give you more latitude and control for the remaining process.

In this case, I wanted to achieve color separation and obtain very distinct hues, ranging from green to red and showcasing the rich colors of the foliage. Starting with a neutral white balance was the first step of the process, followed by adjusting hue, saturation, and luminance by color.

III) Color harmonies

Let’s have a quick look at color harmonies without diving too deep into color theory. Understanding the concept of color harmonies can empower your decisions when adjusting the colors of your Fall images. 

In simple words, color harmonies are a combination of colors that work well together. Think of it as a chord of music where a combination of different notes creates a pleasing harmonious sound. The same is true for colors.

There are numerous color harmonies so let’s take a look at the three most relevant ones for editing Fall photographs.

ANALOGOUS
Analogous harmony consists of a group of colors that are contiguous on the color wheel.

A group of larches trees transitioning from green to orange in the French Alps is a perfect candidate for an analogous color harmony. It is worth noting that we can start thinking about color and color harmony in the field when we compose our photographs. We are then only enhancing our compositional choices in the digital darkroom.

COMPLEMENTARY
Complementary harmony includes two colors that lie across the color wheel from each other. This is a very pleasing harmony for Fall photography, and landscape photography in general, as it often deals with cool shadows and warm highlights.

It is used in this waterfall image between the warm orange and the cool teal. Of course, the two colors do not have to have an equal distribution. We can definitely have a dominant color, which is a blue teal in this frame. 

SPLIT COMPLEMENTARY
Split complementary harmony is particularly helpful whenever you incorporate the sky in your Fall photograph. 

The blue hue, present in the sky and the shadows, integrate well with the orange and green from the forest.

IV) HSL panel to achieve color harmony

The HSL panel is a very powerful tool, and this is where the heavy lifting is done to tweak colors in a precise way. It is important to identify the dominant colors in your image. These are usually the colors of your subject. Increasing their saturation and luminance will have the greatest impact on your image since the human eye is attracted by bright, saturated colors and the viewer’s eye will naturally explore those areas first. On the contrary, colors that are outside your desired harmony and of secondary importance in the frame should be less saturated and darker. This is why I prefer to manipulate color on an individual basis versus utilizing the global saturation/vibrance sliders.

Depending on your vision for the edit, two situations are commonly encountered. It is often desirable to either bring colors together or separate them to create color contrast. For both situations, the HSL panel is the tool we need. However, I want to emphasize that exploring color harmony should not become a mathematical process. I encourage you to let feel be your final guide. How do you react when you adjust a color in a certain way, and how does it make you feel? This should ultimately guide you, not a strict application of a color scheme.

This scene was a perfect candidate for a complementary color harmony between the dominant colors, yellow and blue. Some color contrast was already present at the time of capture between the bright yellow of the larches trees and the darker, cooler blue background in the shadows.

The first adjustment was targeting the yellow by increasing the luminance and saturation. The trees are the main subject in my photograph and this is most likely where the viewer’s eye will first travel. Then, I made a hue adjustment in the blue, present in the shadows, so that it complements nicely with the warm color of the trees. I desaturated the blue since this color serves to support the yellow. Finally, I slightly shifted the evergreens toward yellow so they fit with the larches. 

I hope that this article will empower you to achieve your vision for your Fall photography and beyond! Not only is it applicable to Fall photography, but other color images as well. It takes time and practice to develop an eye and intuition to compose and adjust the colors in your images, but it is a worthy journey. Be playful, experiment, and while peak foliage is behind us, there are still some Fall photographic opportunities in the upcoming weeks!

Thibaut Pawlas

From France, Thibaut is a professional landscape and nature photographer. Twenty years ago, as a teenager, he started photography in the Alps during his mountaineering adventures. Over time his passion for rock climbing took him around the world and documenting the journey allowed him to develop an eye for creating compelling images. Whether it is in the grand landscape or more intimate ones, he strives to connect and engage with nature. Carefully observing his surroundings, he focuses on creating personally meaningful, unique images with the goal of depicting the essence of a scene and conveying emotion to the viewer. Thibaut enjoys photography in all weather and lighting conditions; he believes that strong images can be captured at any time of the day. He started his fine art print business this year and sells his images across North America and Europe.

You can see his work online at www.thibautpawlasphotography.com