Here’s How to Photograph Falling Leaves

There’s something about fall that makes you want to get your camera out. Photographing the foliage is a must during this season whether you’re using it as a backdrop or making it the main focus. During your shoots, you might want to attempt to get a shot of the leaves falling. Well, here are our tips on how to photograph falling leaves!

Once you know how to photograph falling leaves, you’ll be taking tons of photos. Edit them in seconds with Perfectly Clear! Our batch processing automatically adds up to 40 corrections to each photo using a combination of artificial intelligence and real science. Try it for free on Perfectly Clear Cloud, our online automatic editor.

Our Tips on How to Photograph Falling Leaves

There’s a lot that goes into photographing fall foliage. The brilliant colors make stunning photos, and you’ll want to have your camera out all season. Here are our tips for getting those coveted falling leaves shots:

1. Get Your Camera Settings Right

If you try to photograph something moving or falling, you’ll quickly find out that it turns into a blurry mess without the right camera settings. You want a high shutter speed to capture the falling motion and freeze the leaf in the air. Try something like 1/1200 sec or 1/1600– experiment and see what works! If you have a quick shutter speed, you’ll need to set your aperture accordingly or your camera won’t take in enough light. You can try “Shutter Priority” mode to have your aperture automatically set depending on the shutter speed you choose, or go full manual.

2. Toss Those Leaves!

Just because it’s raining leaves in a photo doesn’t mean that it was actually raining leaves when the photographer was going to take the shot. Sometimes, you have to make the shot happen! This is actually in your favor– windy days with lots of movement actually make it harder to get the photo. Don’t be afraid to toss the leaves in the air to get the shot you want or take someone along that can throw a few leaves in front of the camera!

3. The Light Is Your Friend

Because you’ll have to shoot with shut a high shutter speed, you’re going to need to make sure there’s a lot of light. If you want to get photos of falling leaves, it’s best to go when the sun is shining. Plus, light can make some beautiful compositions. There’s nothing like the sun shining through the trees!

Time to Edit

Once you learn how to photograph falling leaves and get plenty of photos, it’s time to edit them. Because your camera didn’t let that much light in, there’s a chance they will all be too dark. Luckily, Perfectly Clear is here to help! Consider trying out Perfectly Clear Cloud, our web app. All you need to do is create an account (no credit card required for the trial), load your photos in, and download the edited images.