The fall is a great time to get out and make images of vibrant foliage offset against crisp autumn blue skies. It’s the most colorful season so it stands to reason that more images of trees are made in the fall than any other time of the year. The western US offers palettes of yellow aspens with occasional hues of orange and red while the east is more well known for its plethora of color that abounds from its hardwood maples, oaks and birches. Mix in a solitary evergreen as a focal point and the results can be very dramatic. To achieve the potential drama in fall color photos, there are three filters I carry all the time. I encourage you to do the same to increase your chances of coming home with a winner.

Polarizer: First and foremost on my list of filters I’d never leave home without in autumn is the polarizer. 

©Russ Burden

Sky Benefit - A polarizer can help deepen a blue sky to increase its saturation and darken its color. This is beneficial in that on a color wheel, yellow and blue are on opposite sides. The advantage is the lighter color pops off the page. In that yellow abounds in the fall, the leaves become prominent. Maximum polarization occurs 90 degrees to the sun. If you try to polarize a front lit subject, you won’t see the filter’s effect. A polarizer also cuts through haze which otherwise reduces contrast in the image.

Color - Dependent upon the angle of the sun falling on the subject, glare can negatively impact the image. A polarizer helps cut through the glare to restore the true color of the leaves to the sensor. The result is a much more saturated looking scene.

Water - Reflections of the sky often form on a body of water. If the fall color is around a lake and the sky reflection causes a distraction, try spinning the polarizer. Depending on your angle to the reflection, the distraction can be totally removed. If you don’t see a change, walk around the lake and spin the polarizer at different points along the walk and you’ll learn the polarizer’s nuances regarding how the angle of the light determines if the reflection can be eliminated.

Graduated Neutral Density: A graduated ND filter has a dark top and a clear bottom. I recommend them to tame the contrast when shooting reflections and also to tame contrast at sunrise and sunset. Place the dark part of the filter over the light part of the image area. The contrast range is tamed and produces a more evenly lit photograph. Depending on the situation, it may call for a one, two, or three stop difference. Thankfully, these filters are made in each of these strengths. Additionally, there are soft and hard edge options. If the transition point between the light and dark area is abrupt, it calls for the hard edge variety. Conversely, if there’s a smooth gradation, the soft edge is more beneficial. To optimize their use, the end result should look improved in comparison to if one was not used but the result should look natural. A pet peeve of mine is when I see a graduated filter improperly used on a reflection. If the end result is a reflection that comes out lighter than the section of the image being reflected, the photographer used a filter that was too dark resulting in something that just isn’t natural.

©Russ Burden

To use a graduated ND filter properly, there are a few keys to keep in mind. The most important fact to remember is to use the DOF preview button to accurately position the dark part of the filter over the light area of the image. If you fail to do this, unless you shoot the scene at a wide open aperture, the aperture at which you’re shooting will impact the point of the dark to light transition. Had I not done this in the image of the reflection, the line of delineation on the filter would not have lined up where the water and land meet. 

Neutral Density Filter: Autumn drives nature photographers to waterfalls. Maybe it’s the potential fall color that grows around them, maybe it’s the swirl of leaves that whirlpool in the waters underneath them, or maybe it’s that waterfalls simply exist in forested areas. Regardless of their lure, a commonly used technique is to give the water a cotton candy effect by slowing down the shutter. In order to accomplish this, depending on the speed of the water, an often used range of shutter speeds are in the one second range. If after lowering the ISO to its lowest number and stopping the lens down to its smallest aperture you still can’t get down to one second, screw a neutral density filter on the front of your lens. I carry both a three and six stop to make sure I can get as slow a shutter as I want. The principal behind them is they cut back the amount of light but impart no color shift to the scene - hence their name: neutral, no color shift / density, cut back the amount of light. In that my six stop filter really darkens the scene, I first make my composition and then screw the filter onto the lens. I now have the luxury to try many different shutter speeds and I do so as one tends to work the best. I think of it as bracketing the effect of the shutter speed.

©Russ Burden

To learn more about this topic, join me on one of my Nature Photo Tours. Visit russburdenphotography.com and click on the NATURE TOURS button for more information. Also, email me to be placed on my Tip of the Week list and to receive announcements about upcoming tours specials or to pick up a copy of my book, Amphoto’s Complete Book of Photography. You can purchase a signed copy directly from me or visit your local book store or Amazon. Contact me at rburden@ecentral.com to order your signed copy.