Fall Foliage Photography Tips and Techniques

It’s mid-morning in the mountains. The light is soft overcast. Adam explains, “This is the best kind of lighting for fall foliage photography.” He sets up his tripod with a telephoto lens and uses the LB Combo Polarizer filter to take the sheen off the leaves. Focusing on a stand of trees, he divides his frame into different patches of color. He shows you how to pan up and down and around until you settle on a perfect fit of color combinations.

If you find that a portion of your image is overexposed, Adam says, you should use the ND filters. Adam compares exposures with and without the ND filter. He also suggests bracketing your images because shooting a variety of colors can lead to uneven exposures. Once you’ve settled on your composition, it’s a good idea to shoot the scene in vertical and horizontal formats. He explains, “Your goal should be to fill the frame with color, an abstract collage.”

Aperture decisions are important. You can use shallow depth of field to get creative. For instance, if you shoot a close-up of scarlet leaves at a low f-stop, you will separate that patch of red-toned colors from the green colors of the background leaves. Another consideration is vignetting or light fall-off, which means the darkening of image corners when compared to the center. The LB Combo Polarizer filter combined with the telephoto lens can help to create a subtle vignette. A final consideration is wind, which requires shooting at a higher shutter speed to hold the leaves in focus.

Hike Utah’s mountains with professional shooter Adam Barker for tips on using filters for fall foliage photography.

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