5 tips for creative autumn photography

Monday 9 October 2017, 19:19 by Mike Muizebelt | 14,906 views | 7 comments

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

Autumn is the perfect season for creating creative and surprising images. There are often more saturated colours, while the trees and fallen leaves offer beautiful colour patterns.

The sun is also no longer directly overhead so early, which means you can photograph for longer in beautiful light.

In autumn, an overcast day is more likely to be an advantage than a disadvantage. Bright, direct sunlight creates too much contrast. As a result, the beautiful autumn colours do not come into their own. An overcast day is therefore much more suitable.

Is the sun shining? Then you can also go out early in the morning or later in the afternoon to capture the autumn colours and bring more atmosphere into your photos.

Your polarising filter can reduce reflections on the damp leaves and will make the autumn colours stand out better.

Autumn photography without limits!

But what if you want to expand your autumn series with a variety of photos? Then we will photograph without rules and let ourselves be guided by the ideas that spontaneously come to mind!

Wind, backlighting, harsh contrasts or movement... this time, not the source of our frustrations, but our sources of inspiration.

We play with our focal length, the background, the light and creative blur. In this article, I will give you some ideas to get started, but remember that the possibilities are of course endless.

1. Photograph from a low angle

By choosing a low viewpoint, you avoid distractions in your background because branches, shrubs, small tree trunks and the like no longer have any influence.

200mm macro, f/5.6, 1/15s, ISO 200
This also suddenly makes the gills of the mushrooms visible, giving the viewer a different image from the one they would normally see.

You often find mushrooms standing a little higher on fallen tree trunks, making them ideal candidates to experiment with.

2. Use slow shutter speeds

The fascinating thing about photos taken with slow shutter speeds is that you create something that we cannot see with our own eyes and brains. It gives a creative and fresh view of the things around us.

255mm, f/32, 8s, ISO 80
In autumn, you often see beautifully coloured leaves floating on the water. This is an ideal subject for applying this technique. Find a place with flowing water and you can quickly get started with this technique.

Experiment with different shutter speeds, with or without Neutral Density filters, to see which effect appeals to you most. On a windy day, you will often find that the wind already creates enough movement in a pool or small lake for you to work with this technique

3. Multiple exposure

Some DSLR cameras now have a double exposure function. Does your camera not have this? No problem! You can also layer two photos on top of each other using photo-editing software.

123mm, f7.1, 1/250s, ISO 1250
Multiple exposure is often used to create a dreamy image. You place a blurry photo over the sharp photo. It is also very effective for giving the coloured trees in autumn a soft glow!

For the photo above, I turned the camera a quarter turn for the second image, while keeping the focus and exposure the same. Where the leaves overlap, the image gets the correct exposure and you suddenly see the texture and colour come through clearly.

For a similar image, choose a branch with leaves where you can get all the leaves sharp.
 

4. Deliberate motion blur

When you take photos where part of the image is blurred by motion blur, you usually get dynamic images with a powerful look. The condition is that you choose a shutter speed that is slow enough to create the desired motion blur.

17mm, f/20, 1/13s, ISO 1600
Which shutter speed should you choose? No idea. This is a typical case of trying things out and gaining experience. And of course you can gain that experience very quickly, because you can immediately see on the display after taking the photo whether you like the blur.

Normally, your subject moves and determines the shutter speed you need. In the case of this photo, the speed at which I turn my camera determines the shutter speed I need. By using a wide-angle lens, there is relatively little distortion around the pivot point and the leaves remain sharp there.

Because I turn the camera handheld, this pivot point is not in the centre of the sensor either, but it fits nicely with the principles of classical composition.
 

5. Use an extreme wide-angle lens

Because most wide-angle lenses have a short minimum focusing distance, you can also use them for close-up photography. The 15-30mm f/2.8 that I use in this case has a minimum focusing distance of 28 centimetres. Stopping down considerably allows you to get a little closer.

15mm, f/22, 1/4s, ISO 1600
Using this extreme wide angle brings a great deal of the surroundings into your image. So make sure there are no distracting elements visible, and clear away any leaves, blades of grass and twigs in the foreground first.

In this case, I set the camera to manual focus and focus on the fly agaric. I also use a wireless shutter release to operate the camera. This allows you to make a series from which you can later select the best image.

You might also like

• 

  Creative with (Autumn) Leaves

  by Laura van der Burgt

• 

  12 tips for atmospheric autumn photography

  by Laura van der Burgt

• 

  Do you love autumn photography too?

  by Laura van der Burgt

• 

  5 Tips for Photographing Autumn

  by Michelle Peeters

• 

  Photographing beautiful autumn colours in the forest

  by Laura van der Burgt

• 

  Photographing autumn leaves

  by Nando Harmsen

7 comments

Have your say

Please note: Articles older than a week can only be commented on by signed-in visitors.
Would you still like to comment? sign in or create a free account.