Do you love autumn photography too?

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

Autumn is in full swing. The woods are increasingly taking on their beautiful autumn colours of yellow and red, and after all the rain in recent days, mushrooms are popping up everywhere.

High season for the nature photographer. So I love grabbing my camera bag and wandering through the woods. Will you come with me?

The ideal time to photograph in the woods is just after a shower. The colours are more intense, and rain or dew drops give a photo a lovely atmospheric effect. Tip: use a polarising filter for deeper colours!

Mushrooms like moisture too. The more, the better. This year, for example, there are lots of fly agarics to be found along the forest paths. Especially in places where birch trees grow, as they seem to have a pact with them.

I also like looking for the smaller species. Especially on fallen tree trunks and branches, as they are then a little higher up and I can photograph them more easily from below.

Preferably beneath a canopy of leaves, where filtered sunlight shines through. This backlight creates a pleasant 'bokeh' in the out-of-focus part of the photo.

Bokeh differs from lens to lens. If you value beautiful blur, it is important to pay attention to the number of aperture blades in your lens. The more blades, the rounder and more attractive the circles in your background.

The background is important in a photo, and with macro portraits you want to keep it as uncluttered as possible so that the subject stands out nicely. This works better with the largest possible aperture and enough distance between the subject and background.

If you have a photo where the background is too busy, it may be a good idea to convert it to black and white.

So don't reject a photo too quickly! One advantage of black and white is that textures are emphasised, allowing you to draw even more attention to the subject.

As soon as you bring the lens close to the mushroom, you start to see (pleasant) distortions. If you have the bokeh in the background described above, the little mushrooms will multiply! An example of multiple reflection. This creates a fun effect. It is busy, though, so converting it to black and white is worthwhile here too.

All photos were taken with a 100mm macro lens, f/2.8 and in Av mode (aperture priority). I usually expose two stops over when I want a light photo.

Although I always faithfully take my tripod with me, I often photograph mushrooms handheld while looking for a beautiful light direction. Unfortunately, this does mean the ISO goes up in the woods. Fortunately, most cameras can handle this, and otherwise noise reduction (Lightroom) provides the solution.

Hopefully, you feel a little inspired again.
I look forward to reading your response!

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