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Photography Technique – Autumn Close-ups by Adam Coupe
Autumn Close-ups
As well as shooting subjects and scenes on a large scale, autumn is also a great time of year for close-up photography
If nothing else, the carpets of fallen autumnal leaves we see covering the ground beneath every tree from the middle of October onwards provide endless photographic potential with their myriad colours, shapes and patterns. You can quite easily spend a morning shooting leaf still-life shots: try studies of single leafs or arrangements of leaves to create a pleasing composition.
Outdoors, warm sunlight at the very beginning and end of the day is ideal fro leaf close-ups as it rakes across their surface, casting soft shadows that reveal texture and depth. The light of an overcast day is ideal for revealing every minute detail, and ensuring colours come out really rich. Strong sunlight also works well if you want a bolder, graphic effect.
Indoors, you can be a little more creative. How about using a torch or slide projector as a light source – just shine it across the surface of a leaf and you’ve got yourself a simple but striking still life. Backlighting leaves is another great technique as it reveals the intricate pattern of veins and cells. Simply place the leaves on a lightbox normally used for viewing slides – it’s daylight-balanced so there are no problems with colour casts and the quality of light is spot on. Metering for shots like this is easy because your camera’s meter should give perfect results without any help.
One shot you might like to try is capturing leaves as they fall to the ground. On a breezy day you could do this for real, but it’s easier to set up if you ask a friend to drop them while you shoot. Use a shutter speed of 1/250sec or faster to freeze the leaves, or a slower speed – ¼ sec – to blur them. Take a range of different shots of a single leaf and then maybe a handful dropped at the same time, followed by a whole bucket of them thrown into the air!
Photographing fungi requires patience. Many of the more interesting species are tiny (just a centimetre or two high) and they only stay in peak condition for a few days so you need to get them while they’re fresh. The biggest hurdle you’ll have to overcome is lighting – fungi like shady spots so there will be little daylight to work with, making a tripod and long exposures unavoidable. Don’t see this as a problem, however – no matter how little daylight there is, it can still produce wonderful results, and it’s much subtler than flash.
In windy weather watch out for subject movement and take steps to overcome it. Often, all you need to do is wait for a few minutes for the breeze to die down, but if that doesn’t happen, use sheets of card, a jacket or reflector to act as a windbreak. The equipment you need for close-up shots will depend on what you want to photograph. For still-life shots of leaves, conkers and larger species of fungi a standard zoom or close-focusing telezoom lens will be more than adequate. It’s only when you move onto smaller subjects such as fungi, individual leaves, mosses and lichens that you may need specialist equipment. For instance, a 105mm macro lens gives lifesize (1:1) reproduction without the need for any attachments. Similar lenses are available from all the main camera marques and independent lens makers. Extension tubes are another option or, if you’re on a tight budget, a set of supplementary close-up lenses that screw onto the front of your lenses like filters and reduce its minimum focusing distance.
About the Author
Adam Coupe is pro commercial photographer specialising in commercial photography and architectural photography for a wide range of organisations that need to project their products, people or brand in a vibrant way see http://www.adamcoupe.com and http://www.adamcoupe.com/portfolio/category/19/architectural_photography/projects.htm
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