A Detailed Guide to Photographing Fall Foliage

by Christopher O’Donnell

Capturing the color of autumn is a unique window of opportunity for any photographer – vibrant colors can transform an otherwise mundane scene into a blanket of red, yellow, and orange hues.

So how does a professional photographer take advantage of this breathtaking season? There are many things you can do to set your images apart from simple snapshots – some are easy, and others a bit more advanced. Below you’ll find a detailed guide to photographing autumn foliage – covering everything from light to composition, as well as a few other helpful tips which will improve your fall foliage techniques this coming season.

Know Your Light

The color of autumn is a short-lived season, which means that the last thing you should do is stay indoors due to less-than-ideal weather. You can find a beautiful image with any kind of lighting – you just need to adjust how you evaluate your scene and use what you have to your advantage.

Overcast

Your lighting play a huge role on the vibrancy of color when photographing fall foliage. While many don’t consider an overcast day to be the best lighting foliage photography, it’s an incredible way to capture the saturated colors of leaves. Overcast lighting has the ability to eliminate harsh shadows and highlights – and in the process, bring out those powerful tones and colors that aren’t visible under the sun.

Photo by Nicholas_T

You should also know that wet leaves are much more vibrant than those drying in the sun – this combined with overcast lighting can provide you with some serious color.

Photo by Christopher O’Donnell

Overcast lighting is not just for daytime – the blue hours (that small window after sunset and before sunrise) can add a stunning blue/purple hue to fall foliage, with all the benefits of overcast lighting listed above.

If you’re a night owl, you don’t have to get up at 4am to capture the fall foliage – night time overcast photos are incredibly powerful, especially when the moon is new (not visible) or there is cloud coverage. While you’ll have to employ long exposure techniques (be prepared for 10 minute shutter speeds), the result is an evenly-lit photo, but with a surreal sense to it.

Photo by Christopher O’Donnell

Sunlight

Of course, nothing can beat those warm tones of the sun combined with the incredible color of autumn. The more direct lighting gives you an increase of shadows and highlights which expands the tonal range and drama of an image. In particular, the golden hours have the ability to flood your lens with visible rays of sun – combine this with the foliage color, and you’re in for an incredibly powerful photo.

Photo by Sarah Macmillan

When shooting under the sun, you’ll undoubtedtly run into exposure problems – especially in the morning and evening when the angle of the sun gives you more highlights and shadows to work with. An overexposed sky, underexposed ground, or blown highlights from reflections are all common issues that you may encounter.

To rectify this, you have two main options – exposure blending or using GND filters. If you’re taking photos of landscapes, you can use either method – if not, then exposure blending will be your best bet.

To learn more about obtaining proper exposure with difficult lighting or to find out what exposure blending and GND filters are, please read my in-depth comparison of the two in this article here.

Using Weather

The rush of autumn means that weather is unstable and unpredictable – rain, mist, and frost can show up without notice, but that doesn’t mean you can’t photograph during these conditions. Actually, many landscape photographers look forward to these pleasant surprises as it adds a bit of autumn authenticity.

Mist & Fog

Not only is autumn a show of color, but those cold nights allow for many misty mornings. Fog on water and thick mist in the air can provide a stunning composition – combine this with the light of the golden hours, and you can create an outstanding autumn landscape.

Photo by Lida Rose

Photo by joiseyshowaa

Frost

Also keep in mind that autumn mornings are often laden with frost from the sudden drop in overnight temperatures – perfect for blue or golden hour autumn images. It’s not just the autumn leaves that look fantastic with frost – it’s the green grass and other foliage that has yet to see the harshness of cold weather.

Photo by Anatoly Kraynikov

Photo by Alex Pears

Past Peak

Just because the leaves have fallen doesn’t mean you can’t capture stunning photos of foliage. The starkness of barren trees combined with color on the ground presents plenty of opportunities for creative landscapes.

Photo by Zitona

As mentioned above, water has the ability to saturate the color of leaves, so wet foliage on the ground presents a particularly successful canvas. This combined with the overcast lighting of a rainy day (which also brings out vibrant colors), and you’re in store for a highly colorful autumn portfolio.

Photo by Zoltán Tóth

Once peak foliage arrives, it can last a while – anywhere from a week to a month, so you have plenty of time to try out different perspectives and compositions once peak arrives.

Also, it’s good to know that once leaves change color, they don’t become any more vibrant than what you already see. And once they fall, the color only lasts a couple days – so actually your window of opportunity to photograph colorful foliage on the ground is shorter than the peak season itself.

And finally, foliage can vary greatly within a short radius due to differences in elevation and the type of tree – the tops of a mountain range can be vibrant with color while the town center below has barely turned.

Autumn Techniques

Weather and light have a huge role to play in the kind of autumn images you create, but what special techniques can you use with your camera to photograph autumn in a unique and powerful way?

Panoramics

Sprawling mountain vistas of color is one of the most sought-after autumn photos to capture. If you’re photographing in a rural area with hills and mountains, you’ll want to photograph layers of autumn foliage as a panoramic stitch.

Photo by Kay Gaensler

When shooting a panoramic, there’s a certain set of rules you need to follow to make sure your images can be stitched together correctly – this includes using your manual settings, locking your focus, etc. For more information on how to shoot panoramics, follow this tutorial.

Polarizer Filters

Many know that a polarizer filter is a wonderful tool that reduces exposure and also deepens the saturation of colors – a huge benefit for autumn. However, what works particularly well for fall foliage is that a polarizer filter’s glare-reducing ability also applies to sun and light reflecting off of leaves, meaning those colorful leaves that were originally washed out from reflections now have color that is deep and vibrant.

Slowing Down Your Shutter

The colors of autumn provide a wonderful opportunity to get creative with your camera. By using a slow shutter speed, you can capture movement in a surreal and powerful way. Falling leaves or branches of color swaying in the wind are both excellent opportunities to use a slow shutter speed to get a bit artistic with autumn – and don’t forget about moving water.

Photo by Paul Bica

Photo by Name of Photographer

During the daylight hours, you’ll need to slow down your shutter tremendously in order to capture movement like this – and using a small aperture generally won’t cut it. Instead, you’ll need to use ND filters of varying strength depending on how slow you want your shutter to be. Don’t be afraid to stack your filters either for those very long exposures – just watch out for any unwanted vignetting.

And of course – don’t forget to lock your mirror, mount on a sturdy tripod, and use your remote cable release.

Photo by Christopher O’Donnell

Autumn Bokeh

If you have a fast lens, autumn is the perfect time to use that wide aperture and create some outstanding bokeh images. You can photograph bokeh in practically any situation, but autumn is unique – the colorful leaves can create a mosaic of shapes and tones, and they also makes a fantastic backdrop for an outdoor portrait session.

Photo by Christopher O’Donnell

Photo by NuageDeNuit

You can click here for a more in-depth article on where bokeh comes from and how to capture it.

Composing Your Autumn Photo

While autumn photographs of a sprawling mountain side can be breathtaking, they’re not the only images you can capture. Autumn color is a short-lived season where every style of photography can come into play.

Focus on Simplicity

Minimalism can be equally as powerful as an autumn vista – isolated trees, leaves, and macro shots are often ignored in the quest to capture a more complex photograph.

Photo by Zoltán Tóth

Photo by Giovanni Orlando

Photo by Christopher O’Donnell

You can also isolate using a wide aperture rather than with your composition – this is a great technique to employ when your photography is confined to a small area. Make sure to bring along a fast lens, such as the 50mm f/1.8 prime – an inexpensive, yet incredibly versatile piece of glass. This will give you some incredibly sharp isolation, allowing you to find a scene to capture even in the most unlikely areas.

Photo by John Morgan

Change Your Perspective

Sometimes the simplest way to improve your autumn photography is the most successful. Changing your vantage point from eye-level to up high or down low can provide a unique perspective that many do not expect.

Photo by Christopher O’Donnell

Hijack Some Foliage

One of the great aspects of autumn is that you can take the foliage wherever you go – or at least a small part of it. By positioning a leaf or two in a unique way, you can completely transform an otherwise bland composition by offering a strong focal point – this works especially well with wide angle lenses (the Sigma 10-20mm is one of my favorites).

Photo by Simon Grubb

Photo by Matt Clark

If you’re traveling to New England to photograph the fall foliage – which many do – than the Yankee Magazine fall foliage report blog is the “it” place to follow for constant updates.

This year, Yankee appointed photographer Jim Salge as the blog author. Not only is he incredibly talented with the camera, but he is also a meteorologist – having previously worked on the summit of Mount Washington and also as a photographer for the Mount Washington Observatory. I can’t imagine a better source for a photographer to rely on than Jim.

Even if you won’t be in the New England area this fall, the Yankee foliage blog is a great resource to follow as it gives you insider information on how the weather affects foliage – written from the perspective of a landscape/nature photographer.

The autumn season is too short to afford a missed photo opportunity. Clouds, sun, day, night – you can always find a stunning composition to capture, whether you’re looking at a beautiful mountain vista or the confinement of your backyard.

For more fall foliage inspiration, make sure to check out our collection of autumn images to help start planning your autumn photo shoot.

Christopher O'Donnell
Read more great articles by Christopher O’Donnell on his website or follow him on Facebook and Twitter. You can also add him on Google+ and 500px.

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10 Comments

Marco said:

Excellent tips. I’ll give a few of them a try. Thanks.
Juanita said:

Great tips and just totally awesome photos!
Lara White said:

fall is absolutely my favorite time of year, these are simply GORGEOUS images!
Lori said:

You have made fall season come alive for me! I had always just “gotten through” the season when everything was dying. Now I can’t wait to get a new memory card and get out there. Big thanks.
karen letourneau said:

Beautiful. Thanks for giving me so much to look forward to!
Paula said:

Stunning photos. I will definitely use these ideas. Thank you so much!!
Susan said:

Crazy beautiful! Wonderful tips.
Dave said:

I’m afraid our autumn in Texas is gonna leave a lot to be desired. The way the trees are dying (the ones that haven’t burned up, anyway), it looks like fall now. Sad.
David Raycroft said:

Great article…. Blue hour pointers are a great observation…
Mark Romoff said:

Your Fall Foliage section was very helpful. Will be visiting the Shenandoah National Park and driving the Skyline drive this week.
The weather will be cloudy, rainy and overcast. Your tips were terrific.