Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. Hillsides and mountain roads are blazing with color, cozy blankets and sweaters reappear from summer hibernation, and my personal favorite … it’s the season of pumpkin spice everything! (I know… you can explain the error of my ways to me later.)
Fall is also one of the most magical times to be a photographer.
You’ve gotten up and out, quite possibly at zero-dark-thirty (way to go!) and headed to your favorite vista. You’ve created the sweeping landscape shots that you know will wow your friends and family, and now you’re dying to go download your card …
But wait! Don’t head home just yet! There are many additional ways to capture the beauty of fall that go beyond (or below!) the sweeping landscape shot.
Intimate scenes
As impressive as big landscapes are, smaller autumn scenes can create a compelling sense of intimacy and mood that can be just as captivating.
Look for smaller areas that feature fall’s trademark colors, but also give your viewer a sense of being immersed in the scene with you. Find pathways that serve as leading lines and give your audience a visual invitation to move deeper into the photo. Shooting from a lower angle can also be an effective way to invite your audience to experience the scene alongside you.
Areas where the light is focused on just one small piece of a scene can also create intimacy by offering a private glimpse into a “secret” world. Partially cloudy days or dense forests are great for this, as sunlight can filter through in a much more focused way. Or look for areas where dense stands of trees give way to clearings, creating contrast between forest shadows and brighter, open spaces.
Isolate the fall details
So many beautiful details can easily go unnoticed by the casual observer, so show them just what they’re missing! Dewdrops on a fallen leaf or a tiny explosion of color on the side of a trail can be the stars of a unique composition. Experiment with using wider aperture settings (lower f-stop numbers) to give you a shallow depth of field. This allows you to keep your main subject sharp while minimizing any distracting background or foreground elements by throwing them out of focus.
Positioning yourself so that the sunlight shines through your subject from behind can really highlight hidden structures and details. This is called backlighting, and is a technique you can use to get that luminous, “glowy” look to your leaves. You don’t even have to show a whole tree — you can focus on the contrast between the bright, round shapes of the leaves and the dark, straight lines of limbs and trunk.
A macro lens is great for detail shots because it will allow you to get nice and close to your subject, but you can create detail shots with whatever lens you have. Just make sure you aren’t so close to your subject that your camera can’t focus properly. Don’t worry — If you have to back up to get everything in focus and it creates a larger field of view than you want, you can always crop later in image editing software.
Look up …
Is your natural instinct to point the camera at whatever is right in front of you, at least to start? Me too.
But, when we’re talking about trees, don’t forget to look up! Capture a sense of towering height by shooting straight up through a stand of trees from the ground. Showcase luminous leaves against a clear blue sky.
if you’re like me and not super excited about lying right on the muddy, buggy ground (ick!), hold your camera close to the ground and point it up through the branches. Use an articulating back LCD screen and the Live View function to frame the image the way you want it, then take the shot.
… And look down
Often we focus so much on the colorful leaves, we forget to check out what’s going on underneath those magnificent trees. Especially here in Colorado where the majority of our fall color is yellow, the bushes and scrub below those elegant aspens can often yield fantastic contrasting reds and oranges that complement and highlight the golden canopy.
Look for little collections of varied colors and leaf types, and see what kind of “still life”-style compositions you can create. Fill your frame with little vignettes of interestingly shaped leaves, or find a single bright leaf that is highlighted by the sun against a dark background. Use a shallow depth of field to isolate one sharp, textured leaf among a jumble of colors.
Do the Hokey Pokey!
OK, maybe not exactly, but experiment with movement!
Set your camera for a longer-than-usual shutter speed, and as you hit the shutter button, move the camera while the exposure is being recorded. The resulting “blurry” image transforms a static subject into something abstract and unique.
Fall is the perfect time to play with this kind of intentional camera movement, because the bright colors make for vivid and interesting images. Try moving up and down, side to side, and for a really different effect, try zooming your lens in or out during your exposure. Stabilize your camera on a tripod if you want to reduce or eliminate the “wiggles” you can get from trying this technique hand-held, or if you want straighter lines.
You may have to play with different shutter speeds to get the amount of blur you want, but experimentation is half the fun. Just remember that increasing the length of time your shutter is open means you are letting more light into your camera, so you’ll need to adjust your other settings accordingly.
Dreary? Drizzly? Dramatic!
While we all love feeling the warm sun on our faces and the abundant light of a bright fall day, cloudy and stormy days can mean unique and dramatic images.
Cloudy light means colors are more saturated, bringing out the very best in colorful fall foliage. It also creates a lot more contrast that can add drama and intrigue to a composition.
Look for areas where the background falls to almost black and highlights a bright branch of leaves. Stormy skies can offer a turbulent backdrop above tranquil foliage. And darker scenes add an air of mystery and moodiness that can put a whole different twist on a classic fall shot. The softness of mist and fog in particular cannot only add a dash of spooky, but can create fabulous textural contrast between the much more well-defined lines of trees and leaves.
Whatever the weather and wherever you are, I hope this energizes your creativity for the next time you head out on a leaf peeping adventure. Observe, explore, experiment, don’t be afraid to make mistakes (I make a ton of them!) — you never know when a mistake may turn out to be a masterpiece. And, most of all … have fun!
Editor’s note: We welcome this post from Michelle Fox. Michelle accidentally started a portrait photography business 18 years ago, and the rest, as they say, is history. After many years of chasing children with a camera and nurturing a longstanding love affair with high school senior photography, her passion has taken a distinctive left turn into the world of landscapes and wildlife. Fueled by her favorite chai lattes, she also enthusiastically teaches beginning photography and editing classes through the Denver Photography Group. Her images can be found at a gallery in Frisco, CO, as well as (coming soon!) on her website.
This article is fantastic. I really like the recommendations to experiment with photographing smaller scenes and using creative techniques. So many landscape photographers concentrate on wide vistas, whereas there are so many interesting scenes within those scenes.
Many good pointers here, makes me want to pick up my camera and see with new eyes the potential scenes awaiting.
Thank you Michael – that’s high praise coming from you. Bev, I would love to see your photos if you can get out with your camera! Miss you!
I will use some of these ideas on my Aspen color hike today. Thanks for expanding my photo vocabulary
Yay! I can’t wait to see!
Wonderful photos and ideas about how to shoot our own.
Exquisite photos match each photographic tip – especially love the dark and moody ones spiked with light/color.
Thank you, ladies! I hope you will share some of your images if you go out shooting. :)
I really enjoyed this article! It makes me want to get my camera out and go find some fall scenes to capture. Alas, I life in Florida and that’s not happening here.
Regardless, the suggestions of how to use my camera to take the shots were well given and I’m book marking this article so that I can circle back and use these tips in the future.
And, I loved the photos in the article too. Made me feel like I was right there with Michelle in the forest. Well done!
Thank you, Zita! I love that you felt like you were right there with me – that’s the power of these more intimate kinds of photographs. I hope you can find a way to use these tips in the future… even in Florida! ;)
This is a beautiful article. Are the images used in the article the work of the author? If yes, nicely done!
This article will make you want to head to the nearest forest with your best camera and maybe a bag of lenses and filters.
Thank you, Barbara! Indeed, these are all my images, and actually all from the same photo outing too. It’s amazing the kind of variety you get if you look beyond the Big Landscapes!
I hope you do get to get out with your camera and play!
Great photos and comments, Michelle, thanks for the excellent tips.
Thank you, Laurie. Miss you guys!
Michelle, what a splendid article! I’m an amateur photographer (VERY amateur), but your article and the glorious pictures make me want to be SO much better. I’ve been taking a class by Nick Usborne, who, himself, is a photographer, and the more he talks about it, the more I want to get into it deeper. Just the way your article’s sparked my desire to go out and buy the best camera for one who’s a novice but desirous of becoming more proficient. And may I just say that if you took the images used in the article, well, do you… Read more »
Wow, Alicia… what a wonderful set of comments, and it’s so appreciated! I took Nick’s class too and always wanted to talk to him more about photography, but there never seemed to be the right time and place. I’m glad you are having better luck! And I hope you are enjoying the class – it’s a good one! Also, I would encourage you to try some of these techniques with whatever camera you have. It’s amazing what you can do with even entry level cameras – most of the time it’s so much more about the photographer than the camera.… Read more »
WOW, fantastic post! Your work deserves to be in the gallery. I consider myself an intermediate photographer and really enjoyed reading this and learning, again, from a pro!
Awwww… thank you, Caryn! My work actually is hanging in a gallery in Frisco, Colorado. But I’m working on getting a website up and going to hopefully be able to share it with a wider audience. :)
I live in Colorado and Michelle’s images of my state are amazing!
Her photography tips are so informative and her writing is fun and friendly. I want to read more and to head out with my camera and try her techniques.
Yay! I love it when people get inspired to go out and shoot! Thank you for your sweet words, and this is the first of what I hope is many articles on this site. I hope you’ll check back to read more! :)
Wonderful article and a good reminder to keep a broader view and to think about trying something new.
Thank you, Jon!
What a fantastic article! And the photos are so spot on! Well done, Michelle! So many great reminders that can be used any time of year…not just in the Autumn! Thanks for the reminder to really take notice of any surrounding one is in and for using such gorgeous examples to remind us!
I love that you see these tips as things to keep in mind year-round. I hope it helps broaden your photographic vision! :)