The best colors of all - fall leaves on water

Description: This is another image taken in the canadian rockies during last autumn. I loved the shape of the rocks and tried to line them up with the branches on the bank of the lake to frame the picture of the amazing colors. There was a horrid bunch of brunches that I couldn’t reach in the field and worked hard to remove in post. I hope there isn’t any remaining signs of them.

Specific Feedback Requested: Any and all are welcome.

Pertinent technical details or techniques: Sony a6000 10-18 lens 70mm iso 100 f/13 1/3 sec; tripod.

Is this a composite? (focus stacks or exposure blends are not considered composites) no

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I like the scene and the diversity of colors and textures, but try as I might I couldn’t fix this in terms of white balance. I tried twice, but wasn’t happy with the results. It’s very cyan in cast and the rocks on the left are very blue and overexposed. If I had the raw file I might be able to fix the white balance and the color cast, so you might be able to as well. I didn’t look for any cloning artifacts, so they weren’t too obvious.

Tamar, this is a lovely, peaceful scene with the variety of fall tones along the shore. The blues do seem a bit strong, but I’m liking how strongly blue the water reflection is. The rocks are too bright and too blue. The blue can be fixed (if you use photoshop) but adding a desaturation layer, reducing the blue and then creating a mask that only applies the desaturation to the blue in the rocks. If you add some burning-in on the brightest rocks, those two steps may fix the rocks.

Thank you for your feedback. I looked at my raw file in lightroom and saw that out of habit I added saturation to the blue in the calibration section without noticing that here it is the last thing you want. anyway, now I deleted this and the calibration is evened out. I also burnt a little the rocks on the right and reduced the blue saturation in them a little. I thought the white brings a nice contrast to the picture and didn’t notice the blue tone. So I am not sure if I went too far with the dodging and maybe less would have been enough. Thanks!