Photograph fall like a pro

Winter, spring, summer or fall, which is the prettiest season of them all? I say fall is! With its warm colors and all types of weather (well, at least where I’m from). The best way to celebrate this wonderful season is to take a beautiful fall-filled photo and decorate a wall with it. Let’s go through the dos and don’ts!

✅ Do’s

So, let’s see what we should do to get those great fall-y images!

✅ Get up early

Sleeping in is great, but a great plan for a photographer who doesn’t want to miss out. In the fall, you’ll want to get up early to find the most beautiful foggy, frosty landscapes. You’ll probably want some sunshine, though, to experience and capture the fairytale-like landscapes I’m talking about. Let’s see some examples to help motivate you to set your alarm.

✅ Check the weather

Don’t set your alarm before checking the weather forecast. If it’s not worthed, don’t go. Unless you have no problem getting up early, don’t frustrate yourself by leaving the house when it’s not worth the trouble. Think about the photo you want to take, and the kind of weather would help you get it. Of course, weather cannot always be predicted with 100% certainty. So you might get lucky. Or you might not. Get informed and plan ahead to have the best chances of success.

✅ Find original subjects

Halloween

Fall is not only the season of falling leaves and rain and forests, it also happens to be the time of Halloween and pumpkins and baking and dressing up. So if you’re not an outdoorsy person, maybe those subjects are more for you.

Ideas

Food and drinks are a great indoor subject. Try taking a fall-y photo of soup, salads, bread or hot chocolate milk.

Family pictures are a nice way to celebrate the fall. Dress in matching fall-ish colors, lots of orange, yellow, red, green and brown. Also: work with different textures to help set the atmosphere. Wool and velvet come to mind.

Whatever comes to mind, just try something and see what happens. How does the fall make you feel, and what memories come to mind? Take us with you on a trip through your interpretation of the season.

❌ Don’ts

As always in photography, there are some things that you should definitely do, and some things you absolutely should not. If you want to improve your fall photos, don’t do the following.

❌ Don’t over-saturate those colors

Yes, the colors of the orange leaves, blue skies, and yellow bushes can be awesome and they’re a big part of the beauty of the season. That doesn’t mean that you’ll need to drag the vibrance slider all the way to the right.

? TIP:

Make sure to keep checking out the original photo during editing. That shows you the differences you’ve already made and can keep you ‘grounded’. When you are editing and don’t look at the original anymore, you risk getting used to the new fuller colors and totally over-saturate them.

Of course your photos could most likely use a bit more color, but be careful not to overdo it. Also, check out the difference between the vibrance, brilliance, saturation, and color warmth. While higher saturation can easily make your colors pop way too much, brilliance keeps the colors more natural and the same goes for vibrance. Make sure the color warmth doesn’t make it look like a summer shot, nor should it look too cold. Fall is best shown right in between the two.

❌ All the clichés in 1 pic

Clichés are there for a reason and they can help make wonderful photos. But if you want to create something a little more special, try to find a narrower subject. For example: a still life of pumpkins in the forest, with candles, mushrooms, squirrels and red leaves all over the place sounds like it could be fun, but it might just be a little too much all at once. Try to find one subject and put that in the spotlight, so to speak.

So … where to start?

Think about what you want to shoot, plan your photo, or go with the flow. Whichever suits your personality best. Go for the beautiful clichés or try something completely different. Colors and textures might set your photo to a fall atmosphere. And remember: shoot for the wall! If you love swapping your photos around to fit the season, take photos to fit your interior style!

If your favorite photo happens to fit the theme of the Xpozer Photo Contest, upload your photo and win an Xpozer 4Pack and continue swapping around your photos.