Fall Photography

Fall Color Editing Is Harder Than It Looks — Here's How to Actually Get It Right
Video Tutorials

Fall Color Editing Is Harder Than It Looks — Here's How to Actually Get It Right

Every October I tell myself I’m going to nail the fall color edit this year. And every October I open Lightroom, drag the Vibrance slider up until the leaves look radioactive, and quietly close the file. The problem isn’t effort — it’s that fall color is deceptively tricky. The range of hues shifts dramatically depending on where you live and whether you’re shooting in direct sun or open shade, which means there’s no single slider that solves it for everyone.

The Lightroom Calibration Secret That Rescues Early Fall Photos
Video Tutorials

The Lightroom Calibration Secret That Rescues Early Fall Photos

Every fall I have the same conversation with myself. I check the foliage maps. I pick a weekend. I drive two hours to some gorgeous mountain overlook. And the trees are either still stubbornly green or they’ve already gone brown and flat. Timing peak fall color feels less like planning and more like gambling. I’ve made peace with the fact that I’ll probably never nail it perfectly, which is exactly why this technique from landscape photographer Mark Denney stopped me mid-scroll when I came across it.