Photographing beautiful autumn colours in the forest

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Autumn is in full swing. And it started nice and early too. The mild weather of the past few weeks and the occasional rain shower have made mushrooms seem to spring from the ground. I've never seen so much diversity before.

The American oak is once again creating an explosion of red and yellow leaves in the forest. In short, it's a lovely time to walk and take photographs. So grab your camera bag and head out!

Why not go to your favourite forest and choose a signposted walk of about an hour?

With your camera at the ready, you'll naturally be out for a little longer and stop here and there to capture an idyllic lane, a beautiful tree or a mushroom.

Perhaps it would be a nice idea to capture your walk in a visual story. A series of varied images that tell how you see and experience the forest.

You often start looking at things differently and notice something you hadn't seen before or weren't consciously aware of.

I put it to the test and cycled to my favourite forest. I took all the photographs for this article within an hour and a half, between twelve and two.

The forest was wonderfully quiet and I occasionally came across some walkers. A lovely time to stroll around with my camera without any pressure.

My photography kit consisted of a Canon R mirrorless camera with the 85mm f/2.0 macro lens. I'm surprised by what a lovely all-round lens this is. It's nice and light to use and even suitable for photographing mushrooms from fairly close up with such a lovely soft background.

I often try to play with depth of field and not have everything equally sharp. With an aperture starting at f2.0, this offers a lot of possibilities. The lens has an extra ring that you can programme to set, for example, the aperture.

When you're ready for an extra challenge, you can start applying some creativity. I like to use the multiple exposure function in the camera. You probably know the Orton effect, where the second image is taken slightly out of focus.

This gives your photograph that characteristic soft glow. I still think this looks great. It gives your photograph such a soft appearance.

It's also fun to combine two different subjects to create a more powerful image. I did this by draping leaves over a path. And for the mushroom, I added some mysterious mist by taking a photograph of a cloud as the second image.

Before I know it, I'm back at the end of the walk. At home, I load the photographs onto my computer and import them into Lightroom.

Because all the photographs were taken within a short period and the lighting conditions didn't change, editing one image is enough. I then copy this edit to the other photographs. In Lightroom, this is called synchronising edits.

This saves a huge amount of time, so all I have to do is check the individual photographs for spots or other distracting elements.

I'm pleased with how the series has turned out. An atmospheric impression of autumn in the forest, as I experienced it on my favourite walking route.

Hopefully, you'll feel like heading into the forest again, or for the first time. Enjoy taking photographs, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

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