I took a two and a half hour cruise on my boat this weekend. With my engine newly serviced, and the sun shining, it was a staggeringly beautiful day out on the canals.

This time of year when the sun is so low it can be a bit blinding out there at times. Especially when heading West in the afternoon.

I like to take pictures into the sun. I love the way the light scatters and the possibilities with silhouettes, shadows, and lens flares.

With this picture I wanted to turn it isn’t something it wasn’t. I didn’t want the deep shadows. I wanted the picture to show me what I could have seen had I not been staring into the sun for hours. I wanted to try to create an image that expressed how I felt about the day. The air was still and chilly, but the warm Autumn colours were still out in force. I don’t normally apply such extreme adjustments to an image.

before

after

These are the main edits I made using Lightroom:

• I took the contrast all the way down to flatten out the image and give it a painterly, slightly hazy quality
• I brought the shadows all the way up to bring out as much detail in the background as possible
• I took the highlights down to bring out a bit of detail in the sky
• I pulled the tone curve into a gentle S shape, with the lights and shadows brought up and then highlights and darks very slightly down just to give a bit of definition
• I very slightly warmed up the white balance

Colours:

• I raised the orange and yellow saturation and luminance
• I raised the red saturation slightly
• I took the green luminance up to give a bit of life to the background
• I raised the blue saturation slightly and also lowered the luminance to bring out more detail in the sky and balance the warmth a little