Every year we publish the link to this useful map to help photographers and nature lovers connect with fall foliage at its peak. Folks planning travel to or living in the New York City area or points slightly south can expect to find abundant arboreal action around October 16. Predictions do not come with ironclad guarantees, and wise travelers make decisions based on multiple sources.
The actual SmokyMountains.com map currently shows the date range from September 4 through November 20 and is updated weekly. The image at the top of this story has been edited to fit our format.
Maps aside, the best way to gauge the up-to-date fall foliage coloration process is to contact a friend or hotel owner in the area of interest. An eyewitness report from a reliable individual always tops a map or marketing department.
FLIPBOARD
You probably already subscribe to (or at least know about) FLIPBOARD; millions rely on it for consolidated information about subjects they’re most interested in. The photography material is especially robust.
If you’re a newcomer or only an intermittent FLIPBOARD viewer, start here: 9 Flipboard Magazines for photographers. The depth of knowledge on FLIPBOARD is staggering.
Those seeking intel on fall color changes will find plenty at Flipboard #Vermont. The state of Vermont is practically synonymous with autumn foliage, but in the final analysis, many other states equal or surpass that state’s opulence. That’s a very subjective and easily arguable assessment; we cite this link because broader areas of New England are found there.
World Outlook for Fabulous Color
We’re guardedly optimistic about the prospects for 2023. This summer was the hottest since records began in 1940. More disturbingly, perhaps, the month just ending was the hottest August on record (on a worldwide basis).
What does the super heat mean for fall foliage? No one can answer with any certainty, but there may be a message within these statistics: get out and shoot pictures of the beautiful autumn colors while they’re still happening.
—Jon Sienkiewicz
The easy-to-use Clarity tool is extremely helpful when editing outdoor images in Lightroom, Lightroom Classic and Adobe Camera Raw. In the tutorial below you’ll learn how it works, why you should consider applying positive or negative Clarity, and the circumstances in which this straightforward tool should be used.
Instructor Todd Dominey created a popular YouTube channel to share his interests in photography, travel, and creative thinking. In this 12-minute episode you’ll learn everything necessary to add the Clarity tool to your editing bag of tricks.
This video is all about editing Raw files, and Dominey explains that that Clarity is a “micro contrast” tool. He says that the key to this feature is that “it creates contrast within an image, as opposed to regular normal contrast that is applied across an image.” Don’t worry if you find this confusing because Dominey uses a gray-scale graphic to illustrate what he means.
In short, here’s the difference: When you use the conventional Contrast tool “it simply makes bright areas brighter and dark tones darker—essentially pushing them further away from one another.” Micro contrast works in a similar way but does so within the image. As Dominey explains, this means that the Clarity tool “looks for change from one tonal value to the next,” in a way that almost imparts a 3D look to an image.
If you’ve Clarity in the past, it’s likely you did so to pump up the effect. That’s what’s meant by positive clarity. But Dominey demonstrates why negative clarity can be also beneficial for certain types of images. What happens with this approach is that all of the distinct tonal values are blended together. In other words, this method is the inverse of positive clarity.
With the basics out of the way Dominey moves on to several practical examples of how he used both types of Clarity adjustments to improve his landscape images. The image atop this page was captured in Utah on a beautiful crisp day. Unfortunately, by the time he set up his gear the clouds had moved in, obscuring the sun and spoiling the dramatic light. As you’ll see, the judicial use of positive Clarity tool enhanced the image to perfection. Now there’s noticeably more division between the various tones in the shot.
While watching the lesson you’ll see more examples of images that benefitted from both positive and negative clarity, and Dominey walks you through the simple steps required to get the job done. And contrary to what you’ve been told, it’s OK to be negative on occasion.
You can find more straightforward advice like this by visiting Dominey’s instructional YouTube channel so be sure to take a look.
And don’t miss another tutorial we posted recently that explains the best exposure modes to use for nature and wildlife photography.
