How To Take Fantastic Fall Photos
How to take fantastic fall photos? Fall or Autumn starts in September, but for some of us desert dwellers, we have to wait till October or even November to see those leaves change into brilliant colors of gold, red and orange. Some of us even have a countdown on social media about this much loved time of year as we are eagerly waiting for the heat to leave and bring in the cool, crisp time of Fall.
What kinds of things do you like to do outside? For example, taking a walk, flying a kite, riding a bicycle, going on a Sunday drive, playing in the park, basically you get my drift. For some of us it is important to capture those memories whether it is by camera or by video. We want to remember those good times and sometimes a photo or video will help us to remember as time goes on.
Here are some tips to capture those fantastic fall photos:
The location is the first place to think about. Do you live in an area where the leaves change in color? Fantastic! If not, go and find a place with those colorful leaves.
Once you get to your destination, take a look around you. Get a visualization of what you want to capture in your lens.
Find a trail, whether it is a hiking trail or a road. Look to see if there are colorful trees around it. Using the rule of thirds, put the trail on one side of your photo and make sure you have trees included in your photo. You don't need the full length of the trees.
Go up to those colorful trees and take photos. Again, do not put the full length of the trees in your photo, unless they are really short.
If there is water around, take photos of it. Especially if there are leaves in the water. They look really pretty in photos.
For settings, you can choose Auto Mode. With fall colors and the natural lighting it might seem a little darker or with more shadows. There is nothing wrong with taking photos in Auto Mode. It can take the guess work from Manual Mode.
If you want to challenge yourself with Manual Mode, look at your ISO, Aperture and Speed. This is when you might have to play with your settings. With more shadows it is harder, but not impossible. Maybe raise your ISO to 200, but try to keep it under 400 as sometimes photos can get grainy with a very high ISO. Your aperture and speed will have to be adjusted together so they can work. If you go high on one, go low on the other. The opposite is true as well.
Enjoy yourself! Get outside and take those fantastic fall photos! Take photos with what you have. You do not need a fancy, expensive camera. If you have one, great! If you don't, just a regular camera or a cell phone will do. The most important thing is get outside and savor this time of year. Inhale the cool, crisp autumn air and relax as you take in the memories of the beauty found in nature.