Top 3 Tips For Astonishing And Colorful Fall Photography

These tips are from Chris M Williams over at Digital Photography Review.

Don’t forget this is also the perfect season to arrange all your portrait photoshoots outdoors! Natural light portraits with all these colorful backgrounds will turn out amazing and give your clients the kind of photos they’ve dreamed of. Also, try getting some macro shots as well!

Use fall color to add layers

Fall color can also add layers to a already interesting composition. Finding a way to incorporate fall color into a forest scene or a mountainous landscape can really add depth, character and interesting colors to your image.

• Use a telephoto lens to minimize the scene and add depth through layers.
• Look for patterns and textures – a mixture of fall foliage and evergreen trees can offer a nice variety of colors and textures to the scene.
• Shoot panoramic images – scenes with fall foliage and layers tend to lend themselves very well to a panoramic treatment.
• Utilize light at different times during the day to emphasize the fall color – the colors in the scene will change drastically throughout the day depending upon the direction and amount of light present in scene, so experiment and take lots of images throughout the day.

Shoot falling leaves

Fall foliage doesn’t last forever, but even the falling leaves can add interest and color to your images.

• One of my favorite things to shoot just after the fall color has peaked are the leaf-covered driveways, streams and trails that seem to be everywhere after the leaves have begun to fall.
• The fallen leaves can not only add texture and color to your images, but they can also convey motion and help to form leading lines in your composition.

Go abstract

Fall foliage offers a unique opportunity to try techniques such as motion blur while your out in the field:

• Mount your camera on a tripod and adjust your settings to enable your camera to shoot for around 0.5″ to 2″ seconds with proper exposure.
• You may need to use an ND filter to achieve the longer exposure depending upon the lighting conditions.
• Press the shutter and while the camera is taking the longer exposure pan the camera vertically to achieve a vertical motion blur in your photo.
• Experiment with different shutter speeds and varying amounts of movement to achieve your desired result.
• Blend your motion blur shot with a tack sharp shot in your favorite photo editing program to give your abstract a nice sense of depth and a varying amount of texture.
• If you’re shooting in windy conditions try taking a longer exposure to blur the leaves while leaving the tree trunks tack sharp.