Photographing Fall Color

Digital Photography Article and Photos by Greg Disch

Many of you photographers like myself probably anticipate the coming of fall as one of those great times for photography.  We have months to prepare for the fall color spectacular that we know is coming and only possibly a few days to shoot it.  This article will help you to make the most of what time you do have to capture the fall color. 

Why do leaves change color?

Chlorophyll which has a green pigment is present during the growing season giving leaves their green color.  Also present are carotenoids, which have  orange and yellow pigments which are in the leaf all year but are not visible due to the overpowering of the green from the chlorophyll.  When the days get shorter (the primary trigger for fall) and the temperatures drop in proportion to the diminishing sunlight the chlorophyll levels drop, triggering a chemical reaction that stops the flow of sap.  When the green pigments of the chlorophyll are gone the orange and yellow of the carotenoids show.  The bright reds we see in leaves are caused by sugar or glucose which is produced on sunny warm days, and when left in the leaves turns red with cool fall nights. The darker browns are made from wastes left in the leaves or tannin.

 

Weeks of bright sunny days (not over 80) and chilly nights with no frost create the brightest colors.

When will the color peak be?

Predicting exactly when the peak of color is going to happen is one of the great mysteries of nature, many sources can give you an approximate timeframe for an area based on historical averages.  Of course we all want to know when the peak will happen so that we can arrange time off, travel to a great location and  reserve lodging (because for some reason it becomes difficult to find rooms in many locations this time of year).  Ok, here's the answer, "it will peak after it starts and before it ends" and you can quote me on this. Seriously, my point is that there are many great times to shoot the fall colors, some trees will have lost all their leaves and be bare sticks by the time others are just stating to turn. To catch all the color you need to be out shooting for more than just a quick day or two, there are great shots all through the fall season.

 

Common fall tree colors:
Yellow	Ash, Basswood, Birch, Beech, Butternut, Elm, Hickory, Mountain Ash, Poplar, Redbud, Serviceberry, Willow, some Maples.
Red	some Oaks and Maples, Sumac, Tupelos
Orange	some Oaks and Maples
Red or Yellow	Sugar Maple, Dogwood, Sweet Gum, Black Gum, Sourwood

How to capture the best shots.

Concentrate on composition, don't assume  all that beautiful fall color is going to make a great shot without consideration for composition, and having a  clearly defined subject in the photo. Use all of the tools of composition: rule of thirds, leading lines, focus, highlights, shadows, s-cures, framing, vanishing point, and many others.  Don't think that just because you have brilliant blazing color it will translate into a great photo.  Move around  shoot from every conceivable angle and position, use a variety of lenses, from  wide angle to ultra telephoto.  Take your time and visualize the image that you want in your mind, then make your camera give you that image.  Check for distracting backgrounds and out of place items (no one wants to hang a beautiful photo of fall leaves, with an old beer can in the background, on their living room wall).

Move in Close.

This is a great time to use that Macro or Close-up lens.  Examine the fine details in  single leaf.  Look for natural still-life on the ground where leaves have haphazardly fallen to their resting place.  Often as photographers we want to capture everything all in one frame.  While there are fantastic fall landscape photos, too often we overlook the details and the smaller subjects of fall.  A single leaf, bunch of berries or mushroom pushing up through the fallen leaves, can all make fantastic fall color shots.  Use a large aperture to blur the background and focus on your main subject.

Filters

Now that we are shooting digitally, the role of filters is changed greatly from the days of shooting film.  Most of the filter effects can be applied in post processing with a greater degree of control than we could ever hope to obtain by using filters when shooting.  There are however some exceptions to this.  One of the most important accessories you can have is a polarizing filter.  It will remove glare and reflections, enhance and deepen colors and give you deep blue skies.  A polarizing filter must be adjusted for each shot, because the effect is changed by the angle to the sun or light source, and is most effective at  a 90 degree angle to the sun.  The great thing is that you can look through the viewfinder and turn the filter seeing exactly what it is doing. 

The second exception (this could be done in Photoshop, but would take a lot of work) is an Enhancing Filter. The Enhancing Filter makes reds, rust browns and oranges "POP" with minimal effect on other colors. The "ENHANCING Filter" is a combination of rare earth elements in glass.  It completely removes a portion of the spectrum in the orange region.  The effect is to increase the color saturation intensity of certain brown, orange, and reddish objects by eliminating the muddy tones and maximizing the crimson and scarlet components.  Its most frequent use is for obtaining strongly saturated fall foliage.  The effect is minimal on objects of other colors. 

Lighting

Good photos require good lighting. To many landscape photographers the lighting is the most important part of the photo, even more so than the subject.  How do you get that great light when shooting outdoors?  First thing is to know what makes good lighting and the second is to be there.  A beautiful sunny day with clear blue sky, a great day for a drive in the country and taking great fall color photos.  Well half right, a great day for a drive in the country,  a bad day for photos.  The light will be very high contrast, which means the areas where the sun is shining is too bright and the shadows are too dark.  We can see about 11 "stops" of light with our eyes, our cameras will only see about 5 "stops".  This is the type of lighting that we want to avoid, this does not mean you have to go home, just avoid this type of lighting.   Find an area in full shade, move in close and shoot those macro shots.

Golden Hour or Magic Hour,  this is one half hour after the sun rises and one half hour before the sun sets.  This is the time of day that most great landscape photos are taken.  There are several scientific explanations of why the lighting is so good for photography during this time, but I'm not going into that detail.  Just believe me that this is a great time to shoot your landscape fall color photos.

Overcast days will provide better color saturation than a sunny day and a softer diffused light.  This is great for capturing the color in fall leaves. Rain or mist can also really bring out the color in fall foliage just be sure to protect your camera and yourself and watch out for lightning.  Another factor of photographing during or after a rain, is that the leaves are clean and free of dust which will hide the true color.  The drawback of a full overcast day is that you can have a bright white sky, if this is the case the best thing to do, is to try and keep the sky out of the picture.

More information

The websites listed here will provide more information for the upcoming fall color season, including what areas are peaking, the first site is maintained by the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service and will start posting reports on Sept. 1st.  The second  site is by the state of Arkansas and will start posing on Sept. 27th.

http://www.fs.fed.us/news/fallcolors/

http://www.arkansas.com/calendar/fall_foliage_pg1.asp