Steven Bourelle Digital Arts

In Part 1 of this article I talked about photographing fall colors as if the colors weren’t even there. Instead of making the colors the subject of the image, you compose the image with other elements and then use the colorful trees to enhance the scene by showing them in their natural environment. In this post I’m going to talk about using the colors as the subject of the picture and how composition stills plays the most important role. I’ll also talk a little about lighting and how it can be used to enhance the colors.

Obviously there are times when you want to shoot fall colors and have their brilliance as the subject of the picture. We need to remember that composition is still important though. I try to find elements within the colors to help enhance the image, like tree trunks, a branch or even a single tree trunk. A curving tree trunk works great as a compositional element to help draw the eye through the scene. It also adds contrast to the image, making the colors of the leaves look nicer than they would by themselves.

Sometimes the sky can be an interesting element too. Some nice clouds in a deep blue sky will make the colors pop. Be careful with the sky; too much sky will take away from the colors. You want to make sure that most of the frame is filled with color and only a little bit is sky is showing. Another thing to think about when adding some sky to the picture is the tree line. Try to compose the image so the tree line works together with the sky and any clouds that might be there.

One more technique is to use the colors themselves as compositional elements. If there are multiple colors such as yellows, greens, oranges and reds, try composing in such a way that the colors work together. Use the colors like you’d use a boulder or a tree in a landscape image. Use them to help move the eye through the scene.

Now for a couple lighting tips. Personally, I prefer to shoot fall colors on cloudy days. The colors tend to pop more and you don’t have to deal with the contrast caused by bright leaves and shadows. Cloudy days are great for shooting within a grove of trees. You can really capture the beauty of the whole grove.

One thing to remember when shooting on cloudy days is to keep the sky out of the picture. On a cloudy day the sky is most likely going to show up as a washed out white in the image. Not only does that dull the colors, but it just doesn’t look good. So keep the scene below the horizon. If you feel the sky needs to be in the shot, then keep it as small as you can. Another thing to watch out for is your shutter speed. It’s going to be a lot slower on a cloudy day. If there’s a breeze blowing, and most fall days there is, then you need to adjust your shutter speed accordingly. To me there’s nothing more annoying than having a couple of blurred leaves in an otherwise sharp picture.

Fall colors on sunny days can be amazing, but capturing them can be a challenge. Some trees, like the cottonwood, really pop in the bright sun, others can actually look dull. The aspen looks amazing when back lit, but looks flat and colorless when the sun is in front of it. On the other hand the same aspen is beautiful when the sun hits it at an angle. You really need to walk around the tree to find the best colors. 

I love shooting back lit fall colors. The contrast between the bright leaves and the dark shadows can make some very dramatic images. Standing under a tree and shooting up through the branches is an awesome way of showing fall colors at their brightest. When doing this make the tree your partner. Use it’s branches and it’s trunk to hide the sun behind. Remember your composition and use those dark branches as elements in it. Also watch out for sun flare. Even with the sun behind a branch sun flare can still sneak through.

If you’re trying for back lit landscapes, it can be quite a challenge. One thing to remember, have something besides a lens hood to shade your lens. I always have a hat on, so most of the time I use it to shade my lens.  I also carry with me a very high tech piece of black poster board. I cut the poster board into an 8×10 piece and then folded it into quarters. It fits nicely in my bag and works great to shade your lens. Believe it or not, I’ve used this same piece for about 10 years now. Though as I look at it right now, it might need replaced this year.

Fall is the greatest time of year to me. I’m at my most creative in the fall and I feel that some of my greatest images have been made then. The techniques I’ve gone over in this two part series are techniques that I use all the time in my photography. I’ve learned them over many years and through lots of trial and error. Hopefully I’ve shared them with you in such a way that you can take them into the field and use them to create more memorable fall images.

Read Part 1 of This Article

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With the autumnal equinox knocking on our door and photographers across  the country beginning  to head out and capture the beautiful fall colors, I thought it might be a good time to offer some tips to help you create more memorable fall photos. These are things that I do and think about while photographing fall colors. Over the years these ideas have helped me create some great images.

My first tip is a simple one: Slow down and think ahead. One of the things that I’ve  noticed in a lot of fall images is a lack of composition. It seems that many photographers are so intent on capturing the beauty of the leaves that they forget about composing a nice image. I’ve been guilty of this many times in the past. We get to the scene, we’re blown away by the colors and right away begin running around blasting photos of every yellow, orange and red tree around. Never even thinking that though we’re showing how brilliant the colors are, we’re creating pretty boring pictures.

One of the first things I do when I get to an area is get out of the truck and take it all in. I stand there for a minute or two and let that “Oh my god this is so beautiful” feeling go crazy inside of me.  I like to take some deep breaths and let that wonderful autumn air fill my lungs and then I’ll walk around a little, leaving my camera in the truck, and let all of the beauty settle in. This helps to calm me down and relaxes that initial rush of adrenalin that hit when I first arrived.

As I’m walking around I start scanning the area for possible compositions. All the while I’m calming down inside and getting a good feel for the area. Once I’ve calmed down a little I begin to see “the forest through the trees”, or should I say “the compositions through the colors”, that’s when I’ll go get my gear and start shooting.

The next tip has to do with composition.  It’s real easy to loose yourself in the beauty of fall colors. Their brilliance can be breathtaking and it’s only natural to want to capture that brilliance. But as photographers we need to remember that composition is the most important element in creating great photos. Without a decent composition, a photo becomes boring to look at very fast.

One of the techniques I use when shooting fall colors is to try and ignore the colors, (Notice I said try.) Instead of seeing only yellows and reds, I look for interesting compositional elements. I try to see the scene as if the colors weren’t even there. I often ask myself, “Would this be a nice image if there weren’t any colorful leaves?”. If I can say yes to that question, then I know I have a great shot on the way.

Here’s another way to look at it, instead of the colors being the subject of the image, make them a part of the larger scene. Show the colors in their natural environment and let them work to make the image more beautiful. I’ve found that this technique works best with large landscapes and with tighter scenic shots. The three images in this post are good examples of that.

Here’s something else to try, use the colors as compositional elements themselves. Notice in the Lake Sabrina picture above, there are three distinct elements in the picture, the lake, the peaks and the golden aspens. I use the line between the water and trees as the main line to draw your eye into the scene.

I hope that these few tips will help you take better fall images. They’ve worked for me for a long time now.  In the next post I’ll cover a composition tip for those times when the colors are the subject of the photo. I’ll also go over some lighting tips.

Read Part 2 of This Article

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Yesterday I posted this image of a bighorn sheep that I took in Custer State Park in South Dakota. What’s interesting about this picture is that it’s an HDR. You might be wondering how I made an HDR image of an animal since HDR requires multiple exposures and there’s no way an animal is going to stand still long enough to do that. I actually created the multiple exposures in Lightroom, not with my camera. So I guess you can say it’s not true HDR, but a pseudo HDR.

Here’s how I did it.
Since I shoot everything in RAW I have quite a bit of flexibility with my images. So instead of taking 5 exposures of the bighorn, I only took one. Then I exported 5 different exposures of that image from Lightroom using the Exposure setting under the Develop tab. The first image was exported at -2, the second at -1, then neutral, +1 and +2. All of these exports were done to the straight RAW image. No other post processing was done.

I then imported those 5 images into Dynamic Photo HDR and made the HDR image. Amazingly I didn’t have to make that many adjustments from the default tone map. Just a few adjustments to the brightness and gamma and then I adjusted the light radius, light strength and surface smoothing until I got the results I was looking for.

Here are the five images I exported from Lightroom, beginning with the -2 exposure.

Here’s a comparison of the original image with some post processing and the HDR with some post processing. Click to enlarge the image.

Notice how the sheep in the HDR image looks so much more alive than the other one. It’s all in the eyes. The eyes in the HDR image have a more natural, lively look to them. In the normal image the eyes are kind of muddy and dull. In the HDR there’s also much more detail in the shadowed part of the face and more contrast overall to the horns and fur. I also feel that the HDR image has more of a three dimensional feel to it. The sheep seems to pop out from the background. All in all I feel the HDR image is a huge improvement over the normal one.

So far this is the only wildlife image I’ve tried this technique on, I don’t know why it wouldn’t work in most situations though. I’ve also used this technique on landscape images. Sometimes it works great, other times it just makes a mess. It all depends on the image.

One other note, I used Dynamic Photo HDR in this example, I’m not sure how this would work in other HDR programs. I own Dynamic Photo HDR and Photomatrix. I’ve found that they give very different results with the same images so I use whichever one gives me the results I’m looking for with the image I’m working on.

Give this technique a try. It’s interesting to see how it can improve your images.

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For those who don’t know, HDR (High Dynamic Range) is a modern photo technique where multiple exposures of the same image are blended together with software to create an image with a higher dynamic range of luminances between the light and dark areas of the image. When used like it was used in this image, HDR creates a scene that more closely resembles what we actually see with our own eyes.

Many people use HDR differently than how I use it. They use HDR to create over saturated, surreal looking images that are extremely unrealistic. Personally, I don’t care for images that have that “HDR look” to them. But if that’s how they want their images to look, then that’s their business,  not mine.

The sad thing is, these fantasy pictures have given HDR a reputation that it doesn’t deserve. HDR can be a great tool for photographers when used correctly. The image above is a good example. I contains 5 images blended together. Each image has a full stop difference in them. The sequence is -2, -1, n, +1, +2. Without HDR the shadowed areas of the mountain have very little detail in them. But with HDR the detail comes out giving the image a more natural look.

I don’t use HDR a lot. But every now and then I come across a situation where I need some shadow details or I need to keep the sky from getting blown out and I’ve found that HDR become a great tool then.

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