How To Photograph Autumn Backlit Leaves

1. Think about lens choice

Working close with wide-angle lenses can give creative results, however, flare will be more of a problem. A macro or telezoom lens is ideal but still fit a lens hood to prevent flare. Do check the frame to make sure the lens hood hasn’t crept into the frame though. 

If you find the leaf is silhouetting against the sky just add a little fill-in flash. You can also position the flash behind the leaf to create your backlight if the sun’s not playing ball or when at home, use a window or even a lamp as your light source. You just need to place a piece of tape over the leaf’s stalk and stick it flat against a window. You won’t have to worry about wind blowing your subject around at home either.

2. Leave space between the subject and the background for good bokeh

Having space between your leaf and its background will help create the distraction-free blurry background we’re after. Using an aperture to throw other leaves out of focus can help too.

When it comes to metering it’s best to take a reading from the leaves to ensure they are correctly exposed and switching to spot metering will help. If the background’s dark you may need to reduce the exposure by about half to one stop to ensure it stays dark. If it’s light, open up half to one-stop and bracket if you are unsure. Check your histogram too to make sure your shot is correctly exposed. To make the light around the edge of your subject ‘sparkle’ you may need to overexpose the shot slightly.

After Autumn gives way to Winter you can use this backlighting technique to enhance the sparkly appearance of frost and ice which works particularly well when working with plants.