Photo Tips For Capturing Fall Colors
Now it is this time of year again - end of summer, beginning of autumn. You may regret that the summer is over, but look at those beautiful fall colors! If you have a camera, going out to capture those fall colors of the leaves is irresistible. Indeed, it is one of the classic subjects for outdoor photographs with sparkling bright colors.
Now, it is easy to get carried away when doing this. There are so many trees and shrubs everywhere, with so nice colors, that you may forget about everything but just those colors. This is the problem with many autumn-landscapes I’ve seen - they have lots of yellows and oranges and red hues, but lack structure. All those colors just become overwhelming and even boring, due to lack of composition. Here are some tips to make better shots of fall color scenes.
1. Welcome Rainy Day!
You read that right: a rainy day with soft light is excellent for those autumn pictures. The rain has washed all the leaves sparkling clean, and left beautiful little droplets of water on them. If you worry about getting the camera wet, you can wait until the rain has stopped. Or you can use a clear plastic bag as protective cover for your digicam - kind of like a camera-raincoat!
Also, overcast days in general are very favorable due to the soft light, which helps avoid harsh contrasts. Look for instance at the stunning picture of Japanese maples against a background of black rocks here, made by “tanakawho“. (Yes, I’d love to visit Japan myself but haven’t had the opportunity yet.) Note how there are really no shadows in this photograph - the striking color contrasts are elegantly constructed by simply setting those red maple branches against a background of blackish rocks. The absence of shadows keeps the image from becoming too busy and is a key factor in the superb result.
Other types of light conditions to look for include:
- Fog. Morning fog, for instance, can create stunning effects making features in the foreground stand out against a subdued, misty and mysterious background - as in this image by “seanmcgrath“.
- Sunrise/sunset. During these times of day, the light is very special. It can be soft, and also it can have a sculpturing effect since it is coming from a low angle.
2. Less is More!
What I mean by this is that it is often better to focus your attention on a detail in an autumn landscape scene, rather than trying to cover the whole of it in one bite. This also means that you may be better off using a telephoto setting on your camera rather than a wide angle. A long focus setting helps you avoid cluttering up the picture with too many details. Try it, and notice the difference!
Also experiment with close-ups of little details on the ground, like “tanakawho” has done in the picture here of red maple leaves submerged in a stream. The key here is, again, to look for a simple and strong composition and not allowing anything superfluous in the picture.
3. Practice Makes Perfect!
With a digital camera, you have the enormous advantage (as compared to traditional roll film cameras) that your pictures don’t really cost you anything until you decide to print them out. Therefore, go out and just shoot LOTS of pictures for practice. The goal is, first of all, to get yourself so familiar with the camera and all its settings that eventually you don’t need to give this stuff much of your attention.
Second of all, you also get a better and better feeling for your subject matter - what works and what doesn’t, and why. And get to the point where you can focus your attention on something less trivial than which shutter speed to use and so on. Ask yourself things like: “What mood do I want to convey with this picture?” and “How does this scene make me feel?”
If you follow these simple pieces of advice, including the part about practice, I would be very surprised if your fall color pictures don’t improve a great deal. (Unless you’re an expert already.)
