Garry Black Photography

NEW HAMPSHIRE WORKSHOP

Shooting Fall Colours

Autumn offers practically infinite opportunities to the colour photographer (yes, I strongly recommend that you should splurge a buy colour film instead of black and white). However, there also exists a challenge to the landscape photographer at this time of year. With a riot of colour before you, you must determine how you can successfully capture this season on film. You can't rely on just using colour as your subject, although sometimes even that will work. The peak of the foliage season lasts only for a few days, even the days themselves seem all too brief. Weather conditions and the timing during the season and even the time of day can alter the colour of the foliage. The important question for the photographer is which subject should you select and under what lighting conditions will it look the best.

The majority of my fall colour images are made right along the roadside. Sometimes the best way is to just drive around and shoot right off the road. The road gives you the open skylight, where as in the deep forest it can be much too dark. Any area with open sky, like at the edge of meadows, rivers or creeks, has enough sky to light the outside leaves, while the background stays dark, this brings good contrast to your image.

Contrary to popular belief, the best light for rich colours is not direct sunlight on sunny days. The leaves and branches become a mass confusion of highlights, crisscrossed by black shadows and lines. I prefer a high overcast sky, when there is a white veil shedding neutral light onto the foliage. This light is soft and you get the colours that are actually there, film can handle the range of contrast from pale yellows to deep reds.

Ideally, you want the entire sky to be white. Sometimes, you can get nearly the same effect if a large white cloud blocks and diffuses the sun, but it must be large enough to diminish the amount of blue light from the surrounding sky. Just a little cloud won't do. If just one dark cloud masks the sun, and then it is working like open shade, there is still too much blue light; an 81B filter can help to correct for the colour change. If the overcast sky becomes too dark, then things become blue again. Plus you loose contrast and the picture becomes flat.

My favourite of all weather conditions to shoot the fall colours in is just after a rain or even during a light rain. The wet leaves can display even stronger colours and the contrasting black branches and trunks of the trees combine to create scenes that leap out. In situations such as this, it is a good idea to use a polarizing filter to reduce the glare from the surface of the wet leaves, as they are reflecting the white sky light. The results are often amazing as the polarizer allows the vibrant colours to show. Use it to check dry leaves too, their glossy surfaces can also create glare. This past spring I bought a "Warming Polarizer" (Tiffen); I used it this summer in open shade and on overcast days on scenes that were primarily green foliage. It worked wonders to remove the blue colour cast from green leaves; I think it will prove to be a very useful filter with the fall foliage.

Now having said all of the above about overcast skies that's not to say when it's sunny with a brilliant blue sky that I put my camera away. It is under these conditions that I shoot larger landscape scenes; also this is a great time to shoot the fall colours reflecting on water. Backlit leaves also have a wonderful luminosity; they remind me of stained glass windows. The only time that I can think of that would probably be the worst condition to photograph in, is when there is a heat inversion. This gives rise to hazy sunshine due to the moisture particles in the air. This scatters the light and reduces both the contrast and colour making the image looked washed out.

You're vision is drowning in a sea of red, yellow and orange leaves. How can you put them to good use in ways other than seeking out a few perfect specimens or filling the frame with an abundance of colour? Good colour is worthless without good composition. Look for lines, shapes or forms that have strong interest graphically and that can be combined effectively with the fall colours. You should balance the colours within your image; remember that red has the strongest visual weight. Shooting fall colours is the process of finding subjects that work within the borders of your viewfinder. You cut out the rest of the world and include only the forms, shapes and colours that make up a satisfying picture. Because your visual senses go into overload with all of the colour, you have to look hard to distill from the overall scene exactly what you think will make an exciting image.

Look for background or foreground objects that might be distracting. The use of shallow depth of field can help to simplify the image by putting the background out of focus. Try to find a background that isn't cluttered, sometimes changing the tripod position, left or right, up or down can make a huge difference in your composition. When you do this watch how objects separate out or run together as you change positions. Sometimes a composition just won't work no matter what you do, these are the times when you have to decide should you take a shot or walk? You might not have to walk that far before you find another potential scene. Explore all of the possibilities in one area before you decide to move on to a different location. More than once, I've spent an entire day at just one location.

I am always looking for opportunities of light against dark. The brilliant hues of fall work particularly well against dark toned backgrounds. The contrast in light can be used to isolate the colour and the pattern of branches and leaves against a dark background. If it is the colour of fall that you want, then fill your frame with those bold colours. Focus on leaf close-ups, a solid carpet of freshly fallen leaves, or a section of one blazing tree.

Sometimes it helps to put the leaves in context by setting them against another feature, like a rock, tree trunks, a stream or a waterfall. Be very picky when you choose your subject. I must confess that I go around looking for a perfect leaf or leaves that I can "transplant" into a scene.

You will find that the more you slow down and look more closely at the subject matter that is around you, that you will be rewarded by seeing at a higher level of creativity.