This is one of those “magical moments” shots were the light is just amazing, and almost totally beyond the ability of the camera to capture the effect. Early evening, about 6PM, in southern Maine in July…with the sun still well up, but with a slant to the light that casts long shadows, and a color that is just warm enough to caress and draw up all the warm detail, without, as yet, any touch of orange. Clear blue sky. Very English light! The contrast between sunlight and shadow is what catches the eye…and what confuses the sensor.

Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 24mm equivalent field of view. f4 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 200.

Way more than my usual processing in Lightroom. Full shadow fill, black point well left, added clarity and just a touch of vibrance for a start. Then a Graduated Filter effect from the top left to darken the sky slightly, a GFE from the bottom to lighten the foreground and add clarity and warmth, and a GFE from the right to left to remove a bit of warmth from the sunlit trees. Close 🙂

Close enough, I hope, to convey what I saw in the scene.