With the advent of Fall being upon us and the trees quickly turning to their bright colors I thought I would share some of my thoughts on what I think about when trying to capture the glorious colors of fall. First of all let’s look at some of the equipment which is a must have for fall foliage. Here is what I always use, a great circular polarizer to knock down reflections and bring out the colors. This is a must for fall, although I confess to having it on my lenses almost all of the time for these same reasons – it knocks down the reflections on everything from a blade of grass to the fall leaves you are trying to capture letting their color show through. And as everyone knows it will also bring out the blue in the sky if you are 90˚ to the sun. I also carry a 3 stop neutral density filter to slow down the shutter speed, great for capturing water in motion. And of course a sturdy tripod with ballhead and cable release. As for file types I always shoot RAW files because they offer the widest range of adjustments in post processing and enable you to adjust things to what you envisioned when you clicked the shutter release.
With the equipment out of the way let’s look at what to shoot. Everyone thinks of groups of trees or mountain scenes with the hillsides full of color, all great and I’ve done plenty of them. But you can also include a pathway, roadway, fence rails, old cabins or rivers, as well in the composition.
And don’t forget to look at details, of rocks with leaves on them, reflections on the water where you see nothing but the reflected light, or a combination of reflections and an interesting form like a tree trunk or rocks. Start thinking outside the normal shots of scenes we’ve seen before.
Sunny days bring out the bold colors and you can work almost every hour of the day as you play with backlighting and edge lighting between the glowing light of sunrise and sunset. Rainy and overcast days bring out colors in a soft and muted way which cannot be achieved on a bright sunny day. The giant softbox provided by Mother Nature on these days allows the colors you are trying to capture to flow through with great saturation in the soft light and without the distractions of shadows. On days like these you can often crop out the sky, or at least keep it to a minimum and focus on the land. Detail shots are especially great on foggy or overcast and rainy days. Plus you may find small drops of water to play with in your compositions! Don’t let the cold, wet weather keep you inside – these are hero days!
Exposures should be checked in the Histogram and for added safety check the individual color Histogram’s to make sure you don’t clip the bright reds or yellows if those are the colors you are trying to capture. For most scenes an average meter is fine but sometimes it might be beneficial to switch to the spot meter. For either check the Histogram while viewing the images.
Remember, everything seems to have been photographed these days – it is your vision which will set you apart from the crowd. Get down low, up high, delve into the details, or use a wide angle lens to show a big open image. Fall is what you make of it so get out there and enjoy it!
To see additional images use this link: Fall Images
You can leave me comments or questions there or also on my Facebook Page.
Happy Fall!
Richard Mack
