Tips for Photographing Fall Foliage with Alyce Bender

Images and tips by Alyce Bender

Fall provides us the opportunity to capture stunning landscapes with bold colors, but only for a short period of time. We have asked Tamron Pro Ambassador Alyce Bender to share some of her top tips for photographing fall foliage.

TIP 1

My number one tip when photographing fall foliage is to use a polarizing filter. Not only does it take glare off water and wet objects, but it helps to cut the glare on shiny foliage leaving you with more saturated and defined colors – the reason for the season if you will.

TIP 2

Make sure to pack a Tamron telephoto lens when leaf peeping in mountainous regions. The extra reach will allow you to craft intimate landscapes filled with texture, patterns, and/or color.

TIP 3

Slow down and be sure to take in all the details around you this time of year. Use midday, when the light is brightest, to explore under the canopy and capture details of the forest set against a colorful backdrop of leaves.

TIP 4

Take the opportunity when working around bodies of water to create abstract or impressionistic images by using creative long exposures and a telephoto focal length to capture the fall foliage reflecting on the water. This would be one time when a polarizer would not be used as it would cut the reflections.

TIP 5

Revisit those grand and iconic landscapes so frequently captured during spring or summer to see how Nature dresses them in autumn. With sunrise getting later as winter approaches, take advantage of being able to photograph sunrise without losing as much sleep-in order to create images chock full of color from fore to background.

TIP 6

For those wildlife shooters out there, be sure to use the autumn foliage to add a seasonal element to your image. It will help your viewers cue in on what time of year your subject was photographed or when the behavior captured was observed.

To see more of Alyce Bender’s work, see her on Instagram @abenderphoto

Create stunning landscapes with a ultra telephoto zoom like the Tamron 150-600m G2, or All-In-One zoom lens. Find an authorized Tamron dealer in your area and start capturing the beautiful fall foliage today!