Here in the North West of England, the weather has turned decidedly chilly in the past couple of weeks. Whilst it doesn’t often feel warm where I live, the house feels more like a fridge at the moment. It may have something to do with the 24” thick solid stone walls.
With the feel of Autumn in the air, I decided to search my archives for autumnal images whilst I look forward to the trees changing colour. Although I may have set out looking for colour images, I found this one that I liked, and which works well in black and white.
I shot this in Padley Gorge in the Peak District almost 12 months ago on a damp and misty morning. I was using a Fuji XT3 at the time with the Fuji 10-24 lens at 10mm. The exposure was 1.7 seconds at f/13.0 and ISO160, so using a tripod was essential but also a little tricky. I was trying to get as close to the fallen oak leaves as possible, but still capture the wonderful shape of the tree. This meant I had to remove the centre column of the tripod and spread the legs so that it was almost flat.
When it came to processing, I was a little lazy. The conversion to Black and White and the effects were applied using On1 Effects. I opted to apply preset number 2 from the Modern Black and White collection (I think). This converted the image to black and white, added a soft glow effect and a slight vignette.
The reason that I chose to use a standard preset with the image is nothing other than I liked the look. I often browse through presets looking for ideas before I process an image. This time I didn’t think it was worth trying to improve on what came with the software.
Overall, I’m pleased with the result although this wasn’t the image that I was trying to capture at the time. It’s funny how our perceptions can change when we wait after shooting an image.
This Week’s YouTube Video
Last week, I shared a panorama shot in the Highlands of Scotland. In the post I said that I was working on a YouTube video about Lightroom Stitching. The video is now live if you would like to watch (https://youtu.be/biJ1u8C9Omk).
I hope you like this week’s image and have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
Spooky?
Bet you tripped over a few times in that wood!
Lovely photograph.
Thanks. I think it was more slipped than tripped up.
Very impressionistic, rhythmic, and fanciful – exceptional!
I’m glad that you like it. Thank you.