THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AUTUMN PHOTO TIPS
Now that summer vacation photos are behind you, it’s time to train your lens on Autumn beauty. We’ve got some tips and suggestions that can raise your bar, so your photos reach masterpiece levels. And, better, yet, we bet, you’ll find yourself enjoying the season more than ever.
Beyond it’s gift of brilliant color, Autumn can add gravitas and pathos to your photos. The season both sharpens and softens, intensifies and mutes, thanks to changing light and atmospheric conditions.
Autumn light is softer, as are its shadows. Angles of sunlight change to heighten contrast. Popular landscapes empty out as the crowds retreat, giving more opportunity to shoot with less clutter.
Autumn is notorious for its morning mist, as temperature shifts bring cooler nights up against still warm days and humidity rises to set up seasonal rains. Mist returns to close the day as the shift reverses as the sun sets.
Light and shadows soften as the sun’s angle, relative to the Earth, lowers. Wildlife is on the move -- some head out for warmer climes, some hunker down for the coming winter.
All of this, and more, make Autumn a favorite time of year for taking the most beautiful photographs.
Changing weather presents both challenges and gifts. Overcast skies are more plentiful but it’s nothing to fret about. In fact, they can add their own brand of beauty to your images. They soften shadows, giving an ethereal moody quality.
Weather is unpredictable. There are days so warm, you’d think it was still summer and, in just a few hours, temperatures can plummet. Sunshine gives way to dark gray ominous clouds and gentle breezes morph into biting winds in no time at all. Storms churn up and dump their fury… only to return to calm relief. Each of these conditions has risks and opportunities for you in your efforts to take beautiful photos. So be prepared to weather the changes and don’t let their fickleness stop you.
In fact, what seems like a threat or a downside at first, can open up unexpected glory -- a ray of light can break through the clouds -- a rainbow can emerge. Patience and perseverance have their rewards. Capture the moments of change. Serendipity is an artist too!
Bring protection for yourself and your gear…. warm layers, waterproof covers… and you’ll be all set. Here’s a rain cover for your camera to consider.
Head out with passion and confidence. Seize the Autumn day! Catch Autumn beauty while you can because, in an instant, a strong windstorm or a heavy cloudburst can wipe out all the leaves you’ve been eyeing… and then you have to wait for your next chance next year.
Autumn is the season is when colors most noticeably change, becoming brighter, bolder, and warmer. And there’s often more contrast among them. You can take advantage of this by composing your shots to capture, for example, a brilliant vermillion-leafed tree as it dances with the breeze against a clear cobalt blue sky.
While some photographers will want to capture color solely in the lens, with only natural light and their own control of aperture, shutter speed, and depth of field, others will want to alter or edit.
You might increases color temperature, either with a camera filter or later, in Photoshop. PhotographyPla.net offers a fabulous bundle of photo editing tools which are perfect for your Autumn photos.
Where can you find the most colorful shots in Autumn? Of course you can head out to the woods and forests, or along country lanes for leafy meccas. You can also find lots of color drama in pumpkin patches, fall gardens, and farmers’ markets. You can look up and find spectacular color in both daytime and night skies.
The “Golden Hour” is arguably the best time of day for photographers. Actually, there are two per day, one occurs just after sunrise, the other occurs just before sunset, when the sun is low on the horizon, casting generous honeyed rays of light across the landscape. Colors sing. Contrasting shadows sculpt. And it transforms everything, from your long shots, to your wide panoramas, to your close in macros, into rich tapestries.
Polarizing filters are especially helpful in Autumn photography. They enhance the vibrancy of color, while reducing glare. They tame highlights, which in wet Autumn conditions, with an abundance raindrops on leaves and shiny wet streets, there are plenty to distract the eye.
“Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee”
--- From “Puff the Magic Dragon,” by Leonard Lipton (lyrics) and Peter Yarrow (music)
Temperature differentials, changing barometrics, and increased rainy spells generate mists, both in the mornings and at twilight. Schedule some sunrise and pre-sunset shoots to capture the magic.
Bracket time so you can shoot as the mist forms and gathers, as well as when it begins to burn off in the rising heat of the day, when patches of clarity to golden light break through. You might even camp out under a clear starry Autumn sky so you can be onsite and ready when dawn breaks the next morning. Head to valleys and gullies to shoot mist as it collects. Head to mountain tops to look down and see the highest hills and trees poke through misty blankets.
While Autumn leaves are the biggest draw, take a break and head the other way, towards the seashore. There’s less bright color there, but muted beach and ocean colors are also beautiful. Storms roll in from the sea and, with the open sky you can see them coming from far away. Waves amplify, rising higher, crashing evermore vigorously. Photo ops galore. And then, as it begins to clear, contrasts of light and texture are ratcheted up.
Wildlife is changing too in Autumn. Deer and elkcut beautiful silhouettes. Catch their drama as they rut. Embrace their gentleness as they forage for fallen apples, girding themselves for Winter’s famine.
Some birds and animals stay local for Autumn and Winter. Capture their beauty as they fortify them nests and dens and fatten up to brace against the coming cold.
Migrating birds, in chevron formations or in murmurations, are astonishingly beautiful. Birds tend to favor the same locations each year and the same flight paths, so you can plan to position yourself accordingly.
Autumn is the best time to see starling murmurations, when hundreds of thousands of birds flock together, forming organic, ever-changing shapes that move, in unison, across the sky as they collectively search for the spots where they will roost for the evening. It’s like watching bird ballet.
A telephoto lens helps to capture murmurations against the sky. Use a fast shutter speed to grab them sharply or a slow speed to catch their flight path blur.
Pay attention to the the tiniest parts of Autumn’s world as well. Work with macro photography to find a whole new repertoire of patterns, textures and colors in close-ups of leaves and insects. Zoom in on wild berries. Find new forms in the edges of ensuing frost.
Autumn is the best time to find beauty in wild mushrooms and funghi as they emerge from carpets of damp fallen leaves. You’ll find them in shaded woodlands in a rainbow of colors and a cornucopia of shapes. We like to bring a basket to collect some prize specimens for further photos in the studio. If one of our mushroom cognoscenti friends are around, we learn which ones are safe to eat and have a feast to celebrate a beautiful day of Autumn photo safari.
Can’t get to the country to see large swaths of leafy Autumn beauty? You can find plenty of beauty in cities too, whether you head out to parks, community gardens, or right in your own backyard. And it’s not all about the leaves anyway. Cityscapes mellow and twinkle.
So wherever you go, whatever you do, get out there this Autumn, take the most beautiful photos, share them with your friends, and share them with us here on the BN Community Share Page. Enter them in the BN Photo Contests. And savor them yourself as you move through this most glorious season.
Read more about Autumn Beauty all this week on BeautifulNow, And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Wellness, Impact, Nature/Science, Food, Arts/Design, and Travel, Daily Fix posts.
Want more stories like this? Sign up for our weekly BN Newsletter, Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest. Join our BeautifulNow Community and connect with the most beautiful things happening in the world right now!
Do you have amazing photos? Enter them in this week’s BN Photo Contest. We run new creative contest every week!