With leaves starting to change, now is the perfect time to take some beautiful photos as summer's green leaves reveal their autumn splendor.  Over the next few weeks we'll be experiencing peak color here in the Mid-Ohio Valley. Then we'll have the fun of raking leaves, a perfect time for photos of the kiddos.  Here are some tips to get the most out of your fall photography.

Fall photography is all about location.  Whether you're looking for a leafy backdrop for portraits or you want to focus on landscape photography, nature is the star of the show. Take some time to find the perfect shooting locations.

Next is the time of day.  The first hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset are the "magic hours".  If you're looking for the golden tones of autumn, those are the optimal times for shooting.

Fall photos might emphasize reds, oranges, and yellows, but greens and blues are important too.  Fall leaves on green grass or against a clear blue autumn sky make a great contrast.  Along with that, keep the "Rule of Thirds" in mind when shooting.  Dividing a photo into either three imaginary vertical or horizontal zones can work wonders.

To really make fall colors pop, I suggest using your phone or camera's HDR feature if available.  This take a few photos at different exposure levels and then combines them to create one High Dynamic Range (HDR) photo.  If you're old school like me and still shoot on film, this is the high tech version of exposure bracketing and combining the scans later. 

A similar trick that phone cameras can accomplish is creating a virtual wide aperture photo.  You know how some professional photos have the subject in focus, but the background is out of focus?  That's done with a wide aperture lens in larger cameras.  However, since phones have tiny cameras, two or more cameras are used to accomplish the same effect digitally.  (That's why your smartphone has multiple cameras on the back.)  It's usually labelled something like "portrait mode" in the settings.

Hopefully, these tips will help you capture some amazing autumn memories.  Share them with us, and you might just win a Bob's Market Travel Mug.  Now through Monday, November 15, 2021, you can send us your fall photos for a chance to win.  Click the button below for details.