Autumn is by far my favourite time of the year for taking photographs. One of the things that I noticed most in my first year in the UK after my arrival from New Zealand was the change in seasons. We did (still do) have seasons in Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand, but the South East of England regardless of how awful or good the summer has been there always seems to be a period of settled period of weather around this time of year and you can tell that the autumn colours will be with us soon.
Some of the best outdoor photographs I think I’ve taken of families outdoors have been in the autumn using the colours and leaves as props, and I also think some of my best selling gallery photographs have been taken in various cities in autumn.
So how do you take photographs in autumn? My biggest tip for portraits photography in the autumn is keep the sun behind you. And with Landscapes try experimenting taking photographs through the autumn colours into the sun.
In autumn the direct light is much softer than it is in summer and worth using to your advantage. The best time of day is at the beginning and at the end, and with the weather we’ve been having lately conditions are ideal.
For Portraits and shots of the children playing in the leaves set your DSLR to AV (aperture priority), and set the aperture to the lowest it will go to – maybe 6.4 ,5.6 or 4. The corresponding speed will be quite high and you’ll be able to capture the movement without too much blur.
You could also try this in reverse if the children (and the adults) are throwing leaves at each other. Set your camera to TV (time priority) and set the speed to 60. Take plenty of photographs, I take 50 or 60 images in a burst if there’s lots of action, the law of averages dictates that if you take plenty there will be some good exposures.
For Landscape photographs take your time. Experiment with depth of field with aperture as high and as low as it will go. Most lenses perform best at around f11. If you have a tripod use it even if you can take the photograph handheld. I find that using a tripod slows the picture taking process down and I think much more carefully about the composition. If you’re standing with your back to the light the camera’s metering system will be quite accurate although you will need to take a few frames at different exposures just to make sure you get a spot on exposure. Think carefully about how you frame your photograph, use lines of trees, use the disappearing perspective you get with pathways, or get close in with a zoom lens.
I’ve talked a lot about the settings you should use on SLR cameras. With compact cameras where you can’t make many manual alterations to the camera exposure don’t worry, put a large memory card in your camera and try taking lots of pictures and experiment with the manual settings.
You’ve got plenty of time. The colours in the last two years according to my records start to look good in mid October, and oak trees don’t start falling until mid December.
Home
