How to Photograph Leaves. As you probably already know doing photography in the mid-day sun is a bad idea as the bright sunlight washes out colors and leaves harsh highlights/glares on leaves, especially if they are wet. But going into the shade of a forest or woodland and shooting at mid day can be OK.
I like to shoot leaves in the middle of the day because the light coming through the leaves is dappled and certain leaves will stand out as they are lit by the sun whilst the other leaves are in the shade, this can give you black backgrounds. And you do not want to be rushing home because the dawn is over.
Isolating the leaves lit by the sun leaving a dark background
What Lens To Use? My preferred lens for shooting the leaves is a mid range zoom I use a 18x250mm or my 28x300mm so I can zoom in on the leaves that are maybe higher up the tree. Don’t stand head back looking up this can cause neck problems….
OK. let me digress a little here and set the scene for shooting leaves on a summers day. It is about 1pm and you are in a woodland sitting on the grassy bank of a soft babbling stream with your socks and shoes off and your little pinkies dipped in the cool water.
Sea Grape lit by the early morning sun.
Are you comfortable? Because this is how it is done, you need to be patient as the sun moves across the heavens. So you have a cooler with drinks handy and maybe a couple of your favorite sandwiches. Lie back and look up into the tree and look for likely leafy subjects.
I strongly advise against closing your eyes at this time as that can lead to falling asleep and missing everything. But if you do sleep for a couple of hours have no fear, the light will be even better when you wake up as you will be into the golden hours. Leaf photography can be stressful so you need to relax a bit.
Maybe shoot the leaves higher up the tree.
What Exposure to use? Exposure is the most common fault I see in photographs next to composition. Exposure is how much light you let into your camera. Notice I say you, as you are in charge of this unless you are shooting on auto. Do not ever shoot leaves on auto or the camera cops will come and confiscate your camera and arrest you for being a dumb photographer.
Camera Mode. Set your camera to “A” Aperture. You need a narrow [dof] depth of field so use the little f#’s. I think f5.6 as a good place to start. All descent lenses can get down to f5.6. But go smaller if your lens allows it. I like using f2.8 or f3.5 on my leafy subjects. Set your ISO to 100 and (Important) at this point check the shutter speed your camera has chosen.
Look for color and shapes to add interest to your leaf photos
Selecting Shutter Speed and ISO. If you are shooting hand held with a 300mm lens you need a shutter speed of at least 1/300sec. If you are shooting a 200mm you need a shutter speed of at least 1/200sec. Get the picture? If you are not at the wanted shutter speed increase your ISO until you are. If you are using a tripod stay at ISO-100. If hand held, increase your ISO until you get a suitable shutter speed but try not to go past ISO-800 as you will start to have digital noise creeping into your photos.
Select the correct aperture, shutter speed and ISO.
Exposure Compensation. Setting your camera to under expose by -2 will absolutely improve your photos this I guarantee. It will boost the colors and make your leaves really pop. If you are not sure how to do this read your manual, as that is what it is for.
Camera Manual. If you have discarded your camera manual the photography cops are on there way to confiscate your camera for being a dumb photographer. The camera manual has all kinds of interesting things in it, things you may not use all of the time as well as things you should use all of the time. So read it for setting the exposure compensation.
Leaves come in all colors, shapes and sizes
Different Kinds of Leaves. Leaves come in all different colors, shapes and sizes. Fall colors are beautiful, but not just because you can photograph a tree covered landscape, picking out individual leaves that are changing colors or starting to wrinkle up ready to fall off are your star subjects. Look for leaves like the one below. “Is this just a leaf or is it a work of art?”
This leaf is the only leaf in all of the world that looks like this. And do you know what the most amazing thing of all is? I was the only person in the whole world to see it. And now it is gone for all time, I am so glad I took it’s photograph. Now you can enjoy it also.
Is this just a leaf or is it a work of art?
Try to photograph your reddish subject leaf next to leaves that are still green to show the transition phases, this tell a story about time and changes happening in the forest. And remember there are lots of different kinds of leaves to be photographed to see some of the photos of leaves that I have taken visit my website.
