Fall is a wonderful time of year to be a photographer. Between the cooler weather, softer sunlight and stunning natural beauty, it’s the perfect season for capturing images every chance you get. Here are five tips to help you come away with inspiring fall photos:
Capture the Colors
Fall foliage is so beautiful and refreshing that it never feels cliché. The many different shades of red, orange and yellow lend themselves to every type of photography from macro to portrait to landscape. While fall lasts for months, peak foliage comes and goes in a blink. Keep tabs on where and when that final burst of color is happening in your area.
Create a Time Lapse
Speaking of foliage, here’s a fun idea: take a photo of the same tree every day (preferably at the same time) through the season. In addition to experiencing nature’s fall transformation on a more detailed level, you can have quite a bit of fun editing and combining the final shots. You could also document each day on social media, and perhaps even create a narrative.
Take Advantage of Cloudy Days
Everyone loves sunshine, but it can wreak havoc for outdoor photography. Gloomy days diffuse the sunlight and enable you to shoot more freely. It’s easier to capture color, contrast and shadows when the sun isn’t beaming into your lens. If it’s cloudy and not raining, you should get outside and explore, before the freezing winter temperatures arrive.
See Reflections
Are you near a lake, river, stream, pond or even just a puddle? There’s a good chance fall’s colors are reflecting off of it, and the image is yours to create. “Use a polariser to increase colour saturation on sunny days, but make sure it doesn’t spoil the reflections,” Digital Cameral World says. “A neutral density (ND) grad filter can also be useful for balancing the landscape and its reflection.”
Capture the Spirit
Fall is quite possibly the most spirited season of all, from pumpkin patches and apple orchards to farmers markets and home décor. Plus, who could forget Halloween and Thanksgiving? All the gadgets and technical skills in the world can’t outdo a true photographer who knows how to capture the essence of life in a given moment–and fall certainly provides an endless supply of memorable moments.
We always love hearing from our readers. Share your best fall photo with us on Twitter or Instagram. In the meantime, happy shooting!
