Some tips for taking wonderful pictures in autumn

Autumn, which is often considered a difficult season due to the end of summer and the holidays, the onset of the first cold weather and often gray and rainy days, is actually the favorite season for photography lovers .

For a photographer, autumn is the season of bright colours , warm and soft light , reflections on the water and inner meditation . For me, photographing autumn is an extrasensory experience, full of particular emotions and sensations.

The photographer's ability in photographing autumn is to know how to tell the transformation of the landscape around him and to immortalize the nature that is preparing for the long winter.

The atmospheric variability of the season can give unusual lights and the sun is decidedly less powerful than in the summer, giving decidedly less harsh shadows and a much softer light.

Furthermore, in autumn there is no summer heat or winter cold, this will allow you to have many more hours to stay outdoors and enjoy the colorful landscape .

With the season just starting, I would therefore like to give you some advice for photographing autumn in the best possible way, some advice for making you take photographs that tell a story and that can excite those who look at them. Let's go...

1) What to photograph

Autumn, like spring, is the season of colours, the season of transformation of landscape and nature.

For this reason you have to get out of the city (unless there are interesting parks) to go and look for the bright colors of the trees which can be the main subjects but also used as a background for portrait sessions.

As you get closer you could take macros of leaves , perhaps with frost on them, or macros of chestnuts or mushrooms in the undergrowth.

Living in the land of Aglianico , I love walking along the rows of vines to capture the transformation of the leaves from green to yellow and then to red.

2) Plan your outing and leave equipped

Leaving the house without having planned an itinerary is often a risky choice . Nowadays we are used to using the internet for everything, so look for information on some interesting route near your city, perhaps in the middle of a wood where it is certainly possible to have many more interesting things to photograph.

Games equipped , in the middle of nature you get dirty, especially if it rained just before. Wear comfortable but possibly also waterproof shoes .

Also put a sweater in your backpack, in the middle of the woods it is often chilly and above all very humid.

3) Bring your tripod

In autumn there is not the strong light of summer and in addition you will be in the middle of nature, therefore you will often find yourself in conditions of very little light and without a tripod you will not be able to take a good photograph as it will be completely blurry.

In these conditions , the tripod is essential because it will allow you to shoot with very long exposure times that would be prohibitive handheld.

If you don't have a tripod, the best ones are those made by Manfrotto:

• Manfrotto MK290XTA3-3W
  Tripod with Bag, 3 Movement Head, 3 Sections in Aluminum, Black
• Manfrotto MKBFRTA4GT-BH Befree Advanced GT
  Travel Tripod, Twist M-Lock, Ball Head, for Canon, Nikon, Sony, DSLR, CSC, Mirrorless, up to 12kg, Bag Included, Aluminum Black.

If, on the other hand, you don't have a large budget and don't want to spend a lot

• GEEKOTO Tripod
  Camera Tripod 200cm, Portable Aluminum Monopod Tripod with 360° Panoramic Ball Head, 1/4" Quick Release Plate for DSLR Canon Nikon Sony Camera up to 8kg
• Neewer 10089015
  Portable Aluminum Alloy Monopod Tripod with 3-Way Swivel Pan Head Carrying Bag for Camera Video Camcorder (black), 177cm

4) Rain and fog are not your enemies

Rain and fog shouldn't scare you , on the contrary, they should be an incentive to leave the house to photograph the suggestion they generate. Fog in particular is capable of creating a surreal , often mysterious and melancholy atmosphere.

I love the early morning photographs in the woods in autumn when the very low fog slightly covers the undergrowth but lets me glimpse the saturated and vivid colors of the leaves of the trees.

Don't be afraid to go out when it rains or when there is a lot of fog, you will go home with different photographs from the usual ones you see everywhere... trust me !!! Grab an umbrella to cover yourself and your gear and set off in search of an exciting shot .

5) Timelapse? Why not!

With the transformation of the landscape and the continuous change of lights and colors you can also think about making a Timelapse . (technique that allows you to edit a video by reproducing a very large number of images in sequence).

Look for a beautiful colorful landscape and take a photo a day for some time, in the end you will get a poetic video like this one below where you can notice the changes in nature day after day.

It is certainly not a simple technique but with a little practice you will see that you will have no problems and you will be able to obtain very poetic videos!

I hope I have given you some good suggestions on how to photograph autumn, now you just have to plan some good outings and shoot in bursts. Look around you, autumn is an explosion of colours. Catch them!!!

I recommend that you always check your equipment before going out, if you missed the article with my suggestions on what to check before every outing, you can read it here .