
Fall is here, and so are the colors of fall. I think! In many ways, it has been a late and slow arrival. The temperatures have been very comfortable, even uncomfortably warm at times. Some rain and, of course, the virus collectively limited our outings to rare car drives and more frequent walks in the neighborhood. That last bit is far more frequent for Jan and Karma of course!
Colors of Fall May Be On the Ground
So, enjoying the fall foliage has been somewhat limited this year. We drove to the Scituate Reservoir last week but the colors were also muted there. I was running out of ideas and photographic subjects. Then, I remembered several posts I wrote quite a while back on multiple exposures either in-camera or stacked in Photoshop to present colors, shapes, lines, etc. In other words, photographic abstraction. In case you may want to refer to them:
The camera I take with me when I go out for short walks is a Canon EOS M5 and it does not have multiple exposures on one frame capability. So, I resorted to slower shutter speeds and intentional camera movements to record the colors of fall. The results can be interesting if the camera movements were suitable for the selected frame area. I ended up with many frames I enjoyed and selected the following collection to share.
It is all a matter of experimentation. There are patches of color waiting for you to aim your camera at them and swiftly move it. Try it, you may like it! I will be waiting to hear your thoughts. I have a few things that may help after the photo gallery.
What I Learned and Observed
There are no rules in photography, especially in this kind of photography. I hope you take the following as my observations rather than rules to follow.
- I looked for color or luminance contrast in the frame and nearby
- You will need shutter speeds between 1 – 5 seconds or thereabouts to have time to move the camera
- I set the ISO to the lowest setting, 100; f-stop to around 32; shutter speed as above
- Strong vertical elements may benefit from the movement that follows them
- Any kind of camera movement is OK, whatever works
- Specular highlights against darker colors may help create strong lines
- Looking down is very much alright, colorful leaves against asphalt make good contrasts
- Smoky back sides of fallen leaves need contrasting elements when moving the camera. See #36 and #37 for what worked for me. Otherwise, I ended up with a dense fog!
- When editing, you will likely need to lower the blacks and increase the white as they will be mixed with other shades and get weaker
- Let your eyes and senses guide you as you move the sliders up and down
Let me know how you make out if you add some motion to the fall colors and capture them in your camera. Bill Clark is very good with this kind of photography, check out his site and work too.
Haluk Atamal
Abstract, indeed!
Only one of them had some leaves perceptible – that one is my favourite. The rest was too advanced for my rudimentary taste which, interestingly, was in full agreement with your fantastic multiple images of the flowers which I clicked on accidentally.
Take care and many thanks for sharing – also for the hints.
Haluk
A. Cemal Ekin
I am trying the make the best of what I have, Haluk! There are quite a few with visible leaves but some are more pronounced of course. In the previous articles you will see more discernible subjects, flowers. I may yet pull out the 5D Mark IV and do a multiple exposure in camera experiment.
Take care, thank you for your comments,
Cemal
Ramazan KAMARI
Dear Cemal,
Sharing time is perfect for autumn time. I will go to Yedigöller National Park next week. Some photographers say: “Yedigöller and Balat are the top of the two places for photograhers be a pilgrim.” The #37 is the my favorite here.
Best wishes.
A. Cemal Ekin
Ramazan, very good to hear from you and know that you and your family are safe. Have fun at Yedigoller National Park, it must be flowing with colors now. I like your pick among the photos above, they are all my favorites of course!
Take care, be well, stay well,
Cemal
Sal Capirchio
Cemal-
Beautiful fall / color abstracts! The “rainbow” type look really appealed to me. Love the colors. Would like to see one of those printed. WOW-don’t think I ever set my aperture to f32. Gotta’ give that a try! Be on the look out shortly for a link to my foliage experience this year.
Thanks again for sharing!
-Sal
A. Cemal Ekin
Sal, I’m glad you will try some of these techniques. Easy but so far unpredictable for me. Yes, at f/32 there may be undesirable refraction but with everything this blurry, that’s the last thing to worry about. If I put a filter, say a polarizer I would not have to close the f-stop that much.
Good to hear from you, be safe, stay safe,
Cemal
Odysseas Chloridis
Great piece of writing and a refreshing approaching into photographing Fall.
I checked the double-exposure of Annie Flanagan and Maddie McGarvey this morning and its absolute beautiful. Less abstract to close to the portrayal of nature you have in the images.
I think you will enjoy it!
https://www.maddiemcgarvey.com/mashup
A. Cemal Ekin
Thank you, Odysseas, for stopping by and for your kind words. I quickly visited the links you provided, yours and Annie’s and will visit to look more closely.
Take care, and keep in touch.
Cemal