Fall Colors Landscape Photography
Fall colors landscape photography
Lewis Carlyle shoots two autumns, Colorado’s San Juan Mountains first and then the hardwood forests of West Virginia. Thirty-six lessons, and every location shoot is followed by the Lightroom and Photoshop session that finishes the frame.
Ten and a half hours of video, which is about $9 an hour at this price.
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$97, down from $349.
On location
- Bracketing for exposure latitude you can actually work with later
- Reading a grove at the wrong time of day and shooting it anyway, because the light is doing something worth having
- Reflections, which need calm wind and hard sun at the same time
- Waterfalls, roadside compositions, and one cabin shot from a respectful distance
At the desk
- Super RAW files: several bracketed frames combined in Lightroom into one file with enormous latitude
- Panoramas painted together by hand with layer masks, then compared directly against Photoshop’s automated Photomerge
- Sky replacement on a scene that came back flat and overcast
- Painting aspen leaves from one location onto a bare tree in another
- Removing people from a shot
Where did you shoot that?
Where did you shoot that picture? This is easily the most common question that we get, from both clients and students alike. And while we’re all about sharing as much information as we possibly can, that is actually the one question that I cannot always answer.
Lesson one is not about camera settings. It is about when sharing a location helps and when it wrecks the place. The images in this course were captured off the beaten path, and their locations are deliberately not disclosed.
Which tells you what kind of course this is:
This course was not created to tell you where to go. That part is totally up to you. This course was created to equip you with the skills you will need to capture great images, no matter where you may find yourself.
Six shoots, thirty-six lessons, 10h 38m
Ten and a half hours, grouped into six shoots. The pattern repeats throughout: watch a frame being captured, then watch the same frame being finished.
7 lessons, 1h 16m
Essentials
Bracketing, Super RAW files in Lightroom, the gradient filter tools, saturation and sharpness, and masking 101 in Photoshop. Every later lesson leans on these, which is why they come first. The Super RAW technique in particular runs through the whole course.
7 lessons, 2h 33m
The San Juan Mountains
An overnight storm dusts the peaks with fresh powder and soaks the aspen valleys in rain. Those two conditions together produce the strongest colour in the course.
Then a direct comparison: Photoshop’s Photomerge builds a panorama automatically, and the same frames are blended by hand with layer masks. Both results are put side by side.
10 lessons, 3h 3m
Into the aspen forest
Intimate scenes among white trunks, rather than the wide vista. A motion blur technique turns a grove into something closer to an abstract painting, developed in Lightroom and finished in Photoshop.
Then a reflecting pond where the aspens grow right to the water’s edge, which they normally do not do.
6 lessons, 1h 33m
Water and roads
A cascade surrounded by colour, and the shutter work that makes moving water read. Aspen leaves captured at one location painted onto a bare tree at another to balance a composition. Roadside compositions on Colorado’s highways, covering both safety and what actually works from the shoulder. A sky replacement on Mt Wilson that starts from a flat overcast frame.
3 lessons, 1h 6m
Grist Creek Mill, West Virginia
Half a country away, a completely different autumn. Gone are the monochromatic golden forests of the San Juans, replaced by green, orange, yellow and red at once.
The old mill at Old Creek Falls, hand painting trees into a gap in the composition, and removing people from a shot, which is more than cloning.
3 lessons, 1h 8m
Your own home town
The course closes by arguing you may not need the trip at all. One yellow tree on an ordinary street, taken from capture through to a finished file, with the houses and telephone lines edited out in Photoshop.
Why this last chapter matters
Most landscape courses end on the spectacular location, which is the part you cannot reproduce next weekend. This one ends on a street corner.
In the landscape photography world, a reflection means two compositions for the price of one. Up above, we have a tangible reality, and down below, a surreal illusion comprised of light and imagination.
Mirror in the Lake, lesson 22
Everything opens at once
No drip schedule. All 36 lessons are available the moment you enroll.
Shoot, then edit
Lessons alternate between the location and the desk, so a capture decision is always followed by the edit that depends on it.
Come back later
Access does not expire. The Photoshop lessons in particular reward a second viewing.
Your instructor
Lewis Carlyle
Landscape and travel photographer. He shot and taught this course through Premium Light Academy, which has since closed.
He spends as much time on field ethics as on technique, which is unusual and is part of why the course reads the way it does. The lesson on when not to share a location is his, and so is the one on photographing a stranger’s home from a respectful distance.
Always remember, when you are out with your camera, you represent the entire photography industry. So be polite, be courteous, and respectful, and your kindness will be repaid tenfold.
Lewis Carlyle, Mirror in the Lake
Who this is not for
The course assumes you already own Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop and can find your way around both. It does not teach camera fundamentals, it does not cover video, and it will not tell you where any of the images were taken. If you have never shot a bracketed exposure, this is not the place to start.
There are no refunds
Digital courses are not refundable. All 36 lessons open the moment you enroll, so it cannot be handed back. The complete lesson list is on this page and nothing is held back, so you can see exactly what you are buying before you decide.
Questions
Do I need Lightroom and Photoshop?
Yes, both. They are used throughout and there is no route through the course without them.
Will you tell me where these places are?
No, and that is deliberate. Lesson one explains the reasoning. The techniques are the point, and they work anywhere.
Can I download the videos?
No. This course streams. Downloadable files are sold separately and are not part of this purchase.
How long do I have access?
There is no time limit once you enroll.
Is this shot in one place?
No. Colorado’s San Juan Mountains for the bulk of it, then West Virginia for the final six lessons, which look completely different.
Do you offer refunds?
No. See above.
Thirty-six lessons, two autumns
$97, down from $349.
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