It is not an easy thing to capture the appearance of the original scene in a photograph. This is something I strive for in my photography and as the years go by I grow ever closer to this elusive goal. In landscape photography a naturalistic appearance does a better a job of telling the story. Research by the photographic film industry has shown that humans remember the colors of a scene as being more saturated than they actually were. Therefore, what appears most natural may not be what is most accurate. Some of my decisions about color correction are derived from what I have seen in classical paintings, rather than from what I have seen first hand in nature.

A naturalistic appearance can be derived from a flawed image through color correction with Adobe Photoshop. Color correction is a challenging skill to master. I have been doing it for five years, and to this day I continue to become more adept at capturing the appearance of the original scene.

In the photograph shown above, color correction has recaptured the appearance of the mist between the camera and the distant hills being set aglow by the setting sun. The tonal transitions in the sky now more accurately capture the feeling of the onset of night.

There are two things that I hope to convey in all of my landscape photographs. First, the sky should look like a source of illumination, which it is even during twilight or when overcast. This is something that I only recently learned to achieve. Second, one should be able to sense the stillness or the movement of the air. In the photograph shown below, the wind is bending the seed stalks of the wild oats. This is far more evident after color correction.

When you look at this photograph do you imagine the feeling of the wind on your face, as if you were there? How do you feel about the wind? Do you imagine yourself being warmly dressed, or are you getting chilly? I do not associate wind with getting cold, because I always bring along plenty of warm clothes, even in the middle of summer.

Another thing you will notice about this image is that after color correction the moss on the rocks becomes easy to identify as such, whereas before color correction it was barely distinguishable from the rocks themselves. Moss tells a story of moisture being present, which is less profuse in grasslands than it is under the cover of a forest. One can infer from the presence of moss on rocks exposed to the southern sky that this is a very moist place indeed.

In nature photography mise-en-scène is framed, but not constructed as it is in film and theater. During the 1990s Galen Rowell wrote (Outdoor Photographer magazine.) that he once had to walk three miles down the John Muir Trail before he found a scene that could be pleasingly framed by his camera.

There is a convention of composition in photographs and paintings called the rule of thirds. This means that an area of major interest should be positioned one third of the way across the image. This rule applies to both the horizontal and vertical axis. In Mountain Light Galen Rowell wrote that one can do well to work with other odd-numbered ratios as well. I sometimes compose according to a rule of fifths, with an area of major interest placed two fifths of the way across the image. The photograph below provides a good example of the rule of fifths. Notice how the slope on the left of the photograph forms a continuing line with the hill top just right of center. Continuing lines are widely considered to be an important part of photographic composition.

Notice how after color correction the ray of sunlight on the hill top stands out from the shadows. The more distant California poppies also become easier to see. The fog is now obviously lit from above and the depth of the shadows leads one to imagine dew on the grass — a detail too small to be seen at screen resolution.

Early or late in the day, when facing toward the sun at an angle of about 45 degrees, one sees transmitted light shining through the leaves and grass, as well as the light reflecting from the greenery. Before learning the art of color correction I could never capture the appearance of this mixed light. Now at last I am able to share this aspect of what I saw with people who were not there when I took the picture. Below is an example of how this visual effect can be recovered from an imperfect image.

You will notice in the above image that the grass in direct sunlight is a very different color than the grass in the shadows. This effect is more pronounced during magic hour than at other times of day. Magic hour is a term for the times of day, shortly before and shortly after sunrise and sunset, when the quality of the light is indeed magical. There is less contrast between direct sunlight and shadows, because the sun is lower in the sky and its light cuts through more air. Therefore, there is more scattered light in the sky to illuminate the shadows. The scattered light that illuminates the shadows has a blue cast, because blue light scatters more readily than red and green light. The direct sunlight takes on a more yellow hue than it has as midday, because blue is yellow’s complementary color, and much of the blue has been removed from the direct light by scattering.

As described above, illumination comes in many different colors. Different sources of illumination that are perceived by the human brain as white light can vary widely in color. This perceptual phenomenon is called discounting the illuminant. Sunlight at noon is the International Standards Organization’s reference for neutral white light. In comparison, incandescent light bulbs have a distinctly orange hue and fluorescent lights often have a greenish hue.

Photographs, in contrast with what the brain sees at the original scene, approximate the real color of the illumination. With outdoor photography this can bring truth that the naked eye cannot see to a scene. When color correcting photographs that were taken under strongly colored light, it is often best to tell a small lie and nudge the color balance toward what the naked eye saw. Photographers have been manipulating color balance for this reason using lens filters since long before Adobe Photoshop was invented.