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Must See: Montana Fall Road Trip - 2022

Wild Goose Overlook - St. Mary's Lake - East Side Going to the Sun Road - Glacier National Park Fall is like the blissful sunset of a beautiful day. The colors of the year blazing into brilliant reds and oranges. The weather holding out the last vestiges of warmth. And all the world seems to be curling up over a cozy mug of hot chocolate in the waning light. Just before the cold night of winter settles in. I love fall. And everything that it brings with it. Especially, I love the mountains in fall. How they can go from striking to moody in a matter of moments. And, (even) most especially, I love Glacier National Park in the fall. It is spectacle for the senses. Bright colors. Cool breezes. Altitudes and reflections. Hiking. Grazing moose. Scampering bears.  Head out highway 2 toward West Glacier and you are astounded by the sheer mountainous walls marking the entrance to the park. But, before you do that, my wife reminds me in one of those step on the brakes sort of ways, you absol
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MidWeek Edit: Girl in the Woods

Here in Midweek Edits, I take a look back at a random BKP favorite and re-imagine it. This one is from my first destination shoot in the woods of the Black Hills. I had just started to work on balancing ambient light and flash to be able to move away from available light shooting and have more control over my end product. This frame marked the moment where I finally put the pieces together and fast became one of my favorite portraits. The Girl in the Woods.

SOOC: The Girl in the Woods.

Here the image is rather dark with the balance between a speedlight and the setting sun. But any more or less light from either the flash or the ambient losses the balance. Though I was happy with the SOOC image because of this balance, it shows that I still had a lot of work to do in understanding controlling the balance of ambient light and flash. If I were to re-shoot it, I would open up more for the ambient and adjust the flash accordingly to get just a touch fill. So, I originally wanted to draw out a flatness in the image that highlights the composition and allows the subject and the environment to stand by themselves without the light being a distraction. This leaves and expressive, yet reserved image.

Original Edit: The Girl in the Woods.

In re-imagining it, I wanted to draw out the light more. To focus on the singular elements in the image - the girl, the woods, the sun, etc. This requiring separating each element by increasing contrast, shadows, and midtones. It also need a lift in exposure to draw out the light. Next, I increased brightness, added some recovery in the highlights, and increased the blacks in the image. At this point, the colors started to draw attention away from the elements, so I dropped the saturation way down, added a touch of vibrance, and put the white balance up near 8000. Here is the result:


Re-Imagined: The Girl in the Woods.

And a bonus, black and white edit.

B&W: The Girl in the Woods.

Thoughts? Questions? Put them in the comments below.



Brad Kehr is a photographer specializing in weddings, events, portraits, and landscapes. He enjoys exploring DC and sharing what he finds through the lens. You can catch his website at www.bradkehrphotography.com, follow him on Twitter (@bradkehrphoto), or find him on Facebook.

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