Tag:falling leaves
Autumn in Victoria is a season renowned for its beauty, colourful landscapes, and crisp, cool weather. During this time of year, nature puts on a show. The leaves change colour and fall to the ground, and the landscape is painted with warm shades of red, orange, and yellow. As a result, autumn is a popular season for photography and enjoying the changing seasons.
Popular Autumn Trees
Many trees are known for their vibrant autumn colours. Some of the most popular trees for autumn colour include:
- Maple trees: including the Sugar Maple, Red Maple, and Japanese Maple. These are known for their brilliant shades of red, orange, and yellow.
- Oak trees: including the Pin Oak, Northern Red Oak, and Scarlet Oak, are known for their vibrant orange and red leaves.
- Dogwood trees: are known for their bright red and purple leaves.
- Aspen trees: known for their shimmering yellow leaves and quaking habit.
- Birch trees: including the River Birch and Paper Birch, are known for their golden yellow leaves.
- Ginkgo trees: are known for their distinctive fan-shaped leaves that turn a brilliant yellow in autumn.
- Sassafras trees: are known for their bright orange and yellow leaves.
While we live in a land of gum trees, many traditional gardens in Victoria over autumn are still awash with colour in autumn.
Autumn Gardens to visit
I posted on autumn gardens back in 2020, but the list has since grown to include the following:
- The Gardens of St Erth: 189 Simmons Reef Road, Blackwood, Victoria. The gardens are just 16 mins from Trentham Falls, so you can get autumn colours and waterfalls that day.
- Dandenong Ranges Botanic Gardens, formerly known as the National Rhododendron Gardens: The Georgian Road, Olinda
- Forest Glade Gardens, located in Mount Macedon, is a stunning location in autumn for a breathtaking display of autumnal foliage.
- Burnley Botanic Garden: This is known for its autumn gardens, including the beautiful Japanese garden.
- Andrie Park, Malvern: Ardrie Park in Malvern boasts elm trees that are over 100 years old.
- Williamstown Botanic Gardens feature a variety of deciduous trees that put on a brilliant display of autumn colour, with leaves turning red, orange, and yellow shades.
- Maroondah Reservoir Park: The trees create a brilliant display of oranges, yellows, and reds in autumn. Also within the park is the Rose Stairway, lined with roses and other flowering plants. It also usually has a carpet of autumn leaves on it, making the stairway a great image.
- Arthurs Seat State Park: Located in Arthurs Seat, it covers 84 acres and is set on a hilltop with panoramic views of the surrounding area and the autumn foliage of the trees.
- Kyneton Botanic Gardens: established in 1858, has many European trees that are an explosion of colour in autumn.
Get the complete list
No list is complete without mention of Honour Avenue, Mount Macedon. The avenue is lined with Pin Oak trees and honours the 154 men and women from the Mount Macedon area who fought in WWI. It’s a massive drawcard over autumn, so much so that they put temporary traffic measures in place. Therefore, it’s best to avoid going on weekends. Try to get there before 9 am as they close the road at 9 am during autumn.
The complete list of gardens from this post and the previous one is available for download in pdf format HERE.
Lenses for autumn photography
The best lens for autumn photography depends on the type of photos you want to take and your photography style. However, my favourites to carry with me are:
Wide-angle lens: A wide-angle lens is excellent for capturing autumn’s grand vistas and sweeping landscapes.
Zoom lens: A zoom lens provides versatility and allows you to capture a range of focal lengths. This makes it a good option for taking wide and close-up shots of autumn scenery.
Macro lens: A macro lens is ideal for close-up shots of autumn leaves, berries, and other small details.
Telephoto lens: A telephoto lens is perfect for capturing distant autumn landscapes. Additionally, its great for compressing the depth of field and separating the foreground from the background.
Settings for autumn photography
No one setting will be perfect across all conditions, and you will naturally need to adjust for available light. For example, while autumn is usually not as windy as spring – wind still needs to be factored into the shutter speed to avoid blur.
Aperture
The aperture controls the field depth and can isolate autumn leaves and other details in the foreground or background. A small aperture (e.g., f/16) will give you a large depth of field and keep more of the scene in focus. Conversely, a large aperture (e.g., f/2.8) will provide you with a shallow depth of field and create a blurred background. Thus making the autumn leaves stand out more.
Shutter speed
Shutter speed determines the amount of light that enters the camera and can affect the sharpness of the image. If you’re shooting in low light, you may need to use a slower shutter speed to let more light in. Conversely, a faster shutter speed may be necessary to avoid overexposure if you’re shooting in bright sunlight.
ISO
ISO determines the camera’s sensitivity to light and can affect the image’s graininess. For autumn photography, a lower ISO (e.g., 100-400) is usually best to keep the image sharp and reduce grain.
White balance
White balance affects the image’s colour temperature and can be set to match the scene’s lighting conditions. For example, for autumn photography, a warmer white balance setting enhances the colours of the autumn leaves. With this in mind set your white balance to ‘shade’ or ‘cloudy’. However, if you shoot RAW, your WB can always be adjusted in post-processing.
Filters
A circular polarizing filter (CPL) is very useful. It can intensify the colours of autumn leaves and sky while getting rid of unwanted glare and reflections from different surfaces. With a CPL, you can achieve more vibrant and richer colours in your pictures. However, using a CPL will cut out around 1-2 stops of light, so you will need to adjust your shutter speed.
When using a CPL for autumn photography, it’s best to have the sun at a 90-degree angle from your subject. This means that the sun should be to the subject’s side rather than directly in front or behind it. Having the sun at a 90-degree angle will allow the CPL to effectively reduce glare and reflections on the leaves, sky, and other surfaces.
Additionally, you can rotate the filter to control the amount of polarization, affecting the colours’ intensity. For example, a strong polarization effect can make the autumn leaves and sky appear darker and more saturated. In contrast, a weak polarization effect can create a more natural and subtle effect.
Backlit images
Backlighting your autumn subjects can create dramatic and visually striking images. The sun shining through the autumn leaves will illuminate the colours and details. When shooting a backlit photo, avoiding the midday sun is essential. Shooting in the golden hour will give you much better results with the lower light. Using a tripod to ensure sharpness in your images is also necessary. As you shoot into the light, the camera may underexpose the image due to the sun’s brightness. Use your camera’s exposure compensation to adjust the exposure and capture the correct brightness level.
Using a lens hood can help to prevent lens flare and keep the sun from entering the lens, which can cause bright spots and reduce the contrast in your images. Try shooting from different angles to capture the backlit leaves uniquely and creatively. For example, you can shoot from below the trees, looking up at the sun shining through the leaves, or from a higher angle, looking down at the leaves with the sun shining behind them.
Autumn Photography in Australia is dramatically different for Australian photographers to those living in the northern hemisphere. While photographers in the Northern Hemisphere have Aspens, Japanese Maple, Poplars, Cottonwoods, Ash, Oaks, and Dogwoods at their back door – we have Eucalypt trees. Green/grey all year round. For an Australian photographer, hunting for autumn colour involves a lot more than stepping out into the nearest forest. It requires research to find ‘English’ gardens and often, a good drive in the car. Pre-covid, when air travel was still possible, it could also include a flight to another state or even timing your overseas holiday for autumn.
Autumn Locations in Victoria
However, within Victoria, we are lucky to have several fantastic gardens of deciduous trees that create a riot of colour in autumn. Except for Tieve Tara and Cloudehill, all are free to enter.
- Alfred Nicholas Gardens, Mount Dandenong
- George Tindale Memorial Garden
- Cloudehill, Dandenong Ranges
- RJ Hamer Arboretum
- Bright and Wandilgong
- Tieve Tara, Mount Macedon
- Honour Avenue, Mount Macedon
- Maroondah Reservoir Park
- Glenlyon, 20 minutes from Daylesford
- Valley of Liquidambers, Heathcote
When is the best time to shoot?
In Victoria, the leaves usually don’t turn till mid-April. We need 2-3 cold nights before they start to turn en masse. Time of day-wise, hands down, the best shooting time is during golden hour. The hour before sunrise or sunset will have warmer light, enhancing all the leaves’ reds, yellows, and orange. If it’s overcast with no light coming through, you will need to be a bit more creative with the editing process.
Lenses
While I mainly shoot autumn in a focal range of 24-70mm – pack the macro when you head out – while a macro of leaves is on the cards, it’s not just leaves that may attract your attention. Tramping through trees at Mount Macedon we came across an exoskeleton of a cicada.
Settings
I like to keep my ISO low – most of the time, I am shooting around ISO 200 – and never above 400. I find it easier to avoid noise in images to start with – rather than fix it in post. To bring the leaves out and have them pop against a blurred background, I usually shoot between F1.4 to F2.8 – only going up to F9 and above if I am shooting a pano. Shutter speed will always depend on available light – but if it’s going to be longer than I can hold, I pop the camera on the tripod.
Backlighting
Photographing the branches and leaves, backlit by the sun, will bring out the detail/veins on the leaves. Go for a Fstop of higher than F16 to get a sunburst.
Use a circular polariser
A circular polariser is an essential addition to your kit for autumn. It will pump up the colour and contrast of the leaves and the blue sky. A bonus is it will remove the shine off the leaves or ground if it’s been wet. If you decide to shoot leaves floating in water – it will also remove the glare off the water.
Orton Effect
The Orton effect is one I sparingly use – but when I do, it’s for autumn landscapes. Basically, it’s a glow added to your images in post-production. Photographer Michael Orton created it, and he used it in his film photography, layering two images on top of each other. One in focus, one brighter, slightly out of focus. When combined, this created an image that was both sharp yet blurry. While it shouldn’t be used on everything – it can make your autumn shots pop.
I have created a free action for you to download if you would like to try it. It will work on both mac and pc – download, unzip and add to photoshop. It is a zipped file, and you will need to unzip it. If you don’t have an unzip program I suggest using Winrar its easy, safe and free. When you have run the action – adjust the opacity of the layer to your liking.
White Balance
While most of us shoot with auto WB, with autumn shots, it’s better to use a slightly warmer WB – around 6000 kelvin. If you don’t want to or don’t remember to change your WB before you shoot – you can adjust it in LR or Photoshop during your editing process. Move the temperature slider to a higher kelvin number. The left (blue) will make your image cooler – to the right (yellow) will warm the image. Be careful not to overdo it – if you shoot jpeg, it’s just a tiny amount – if you shoot raw, I have used anywhere up to 7000 kelvin depending on the image.
Below is a shot of the Laburnum Steps at Breenhold Gardens, Mount Wilson. RAW, and straight out of the camera, it leaves a lot to be desired. I warmed the WB to 7000k and increased the vibrance +50 and saturation +25
Look for Subject Seperation
When you are in among the trees, look to separate your subject from the background. Early morning fog or mist is great for this – otherwise, try a low F stop – around F4 or lower to keep your main subject sharp – but a bit of blur to the background.
Contrast is good
Colour is good… great even – but look for contrasting colours to make the leaves stand out. A green shrub in a sea of yellow and orange or dark tree trunks in among the riot of leaves
Autumn is a great time to be out with a camera. It’s actually my favourite season. The days are a bit shorter – so sunrise and sunset are at a bit more civilised time, and autumn is known to turn on some amazing sunsets. The weather is still pleasant but not as hot, and we haven’t hit the cold of winter or the rain and wind of spring yet. Add natures glorious colours, and what’s not to love?