Autumn photography tips

Autumn is arguably the best season to get outside with your camera. Warm light, fiery colours and animals gathering food for the winter mean that there's always something to photograph. The window of opportunity for photographing peak autumn colours is fleeting though, as all it takes is a breezy day to strip trees of their leaves. That's why it's important to seize every moment that you're able to.

To get you started, here are nine autumn photography tips for making the most of the season's gorgeous oranges, reds and golds, whichever Canon camera you use.

The lower elevation of the sun means that autumnal light is often warm and soft – great for shooting photos throughout the day.

Perhaps the best time for autumn photography is during the 'golden' hour – the period just after the sun rises and just before it sets. Sunlight at this time can help you to capture enhanced textures and shapes, ideal for getting up close and shooting fallen leaves. The long shadows created by the low sun can add drama to landscape and cityscape photos, too.

The later sunrises and hazy early morning light can provide great opportunities for evocative shots, such as empty city streets and misty woodland scenes. Try also shooting as the sun sets, when there is still light in the sky but you can also capture the impact of city lights.

Changeable autumn weather means that it's possible to capture many moods in a single day. The sky can be bright and sharp one minute, overcast and stormy the next.

Even rain can bring a range of opportunities for creative photography. Canon's EOS R System cameras and RF lenses are weather sealed, which means you can use them in a wide range of environments and conditions. A lens hood will protect the front of the lens if there are a few spots of rain, but pack a rain cover for your camera so that you can carry on shooting during a downpour. Find a dark backdrop so that you can make raindrops stand out, and take advantage of puddles to shoot reflections of colourful trees.

Colder nights also mean there's a greater chance of fog forming in the morning – so get up early to capture photos and video of a misty city or countryside before any sun burns it off. Try shooting into the sun or towards streetlights to give the mist an ethereal glow.

Set your camera to deliver strong saturated colours for bold autumn images. To enhance the golden hues of autumn landscapes, choose a white balance preset that will add warmth, such as Daylight or Cloudy. If you're using one of the camera's automatic shooting modes that allows you to change the colour tone, set this to Warm.

Capturing autumn images in RAW format (as opposed to JPEG) will give you the most flexibility when it comes to editing your pictures on a computer. Canon's Digital Photo Professional software gives you all the tools you need to process RAW files. You can change the white balance to give your pictures a warmer feel, for example, and experiment with different Picture Styles such as the Autumn Hues style that can be downloaded from the Canon website. It's also possible to fine-tune the hue, saturation and luminosity of individual colours using the 'colour adjustment' tool.

Autumn colours create an uplifting backdrop for a portrait photo. To produce a flattering image, move back from your subject and zoom the lens to a long setting. This will make facial features less pronounced, for a more pleasing result. The narrower view of a longer zoom will also give you more control over what appears in the background of your portrait, so you can flood the backdrop with autumnal colours.

The low angle of the sun on autumn days can be uncomfortable for your portrait subject, so shoot in the shade of a tree or a building so that the person will not be squinting. As an alternative, position them so that the warm light illuminates them from behind or from one side, then hold something white close to their face to reflect the light and brighten up the areas in shadow.

Autumn weather is unpredictable, and sometimes you'll need to shoot inside. Use white net or tulle material to diffuse the light from a window and place the portrait subject so that the light falls on one side of their face. Ask them to turn their head slightly to look outside so that the soft light illuminates their face evenly.

The seasonal colours bring an extra element to photos of wild animals and birds, although you'll often need a long lens to get frame-filling shots. Most animals will be active at dawn and dusk, so try to get into a position at a location before your subject arrives. Use your camera's fastest drive mode setting so that you are able to capture bursts of shots, and set AI Servo/Servo autofocus to track moving animals.

Wild animals such as deer, squirrels and birds can blend into their surroundings, so try to frame them against the vibrant autumn foliage so that they stand out more. If you have birds visiting your garden, use bird food to entice them to land in front of a colourful backdrop.

Macro photography is a great way to explore the tones and textures of autumn. Experiment with the macro or close-up mode on your camera and look for seasonal details such as fungi, raindrops on leaves or the veins of fallen foliage.

To bring out the texture of autumn leaves, light them from a low angle. If you want to capture the delicate structure of a leaf, tape it to a window so that you can photograph it backlit by the sun.

The Canon RF 24mm F1.8 MACRO IS STM for EOS R System cameras has a minimum focusing distance (MFD) of 14cm (0.5x magnification or half life-size), giving you the opportunity to fill the frame with detail, while the Canon RF 85mm F2 MACRO IS STM allows you to focus up to 35cm (0.5x magnification). Macro lenses aren't solely for close-up photography – you can use them for portraits, landscapes and other subjects, too.

You don't need a dedicated lens for macro photography. As long as you have a good quality camera and lens, any shot can be cropped to show the detail of a subject. Many lenses supplied with Canon EOS cameras have an impressively short MFD, such as the Canon RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM, which can focus up to 13cm.

A Canon EOS R System camera makes for a great lightweight option to carry all day on an autumn photography outing. The compact Canon EOS R10 and Canon EOS RP are simple to use and packed with creative features that let you develop your photography and video skills.

Experiment with different lenses to add variety to your autumn images. A wide-angle lens such as the Canon RF 24mm F1.8 MACRO IS STM is great for seasonal landscape shots, while the lightweight RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM is ideal for wildlife photography. A lens with a large maximum aperture, such as the Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM, will make it easier to shoot in low light.

Don't forget to pack some accessories. A reflector will give you more control over the light when you're shooting autumn close-ups and portraits, and a lightweight tripod will enable you to continue to take pictures at night. A circular polarising filter that attaches to the front of your lens is a great autumn photography accessory, as it will reduce reflections and boost saturation.

While you're out taking autumn images, why not shoot autumn in motion too? Canon EOS cameras such as the Canon EOS R10 allow you to record high-quality videos at the touch of a button. If you have a camera equipped with Wi-Fi, you can easily share your clips on social media while you're on the go, via the Canon Camera Connect app.

If you're featuring friends, family or other people, make sure that the stars of your film are wearing colours that complement the autumn hues. For a professional look, keep your camera stationary and avoid zooming the lens while you're filming.

Try shooting some clips where the leaves are falling from the trees, or why not scoop up a handful of leaves and throw them in the air? Make sure your internal audio recording is on so you capture the sound of leaves crunching under foot, or the laughter of you and your friends.

You could even have a go at shooting a time-lapse or hyper-lapse movie, showing the seasonal light changing over the course of a few hours, for example, or dew forming on autumn grass.

It is worth selecting an optimum paper to suit your photography style when printing saturated and warm-toned photos. While the popular high gloss Canon Pro Platinum photo paper gives superbly detailed and vibrant results, you could also try a softer paper. A great example is Canon's Plus Semi-gloss, which has a satin finish and reduced glossiness for a softer look.

The Canon PIXMA TS7440 printer is an ideal home option for printing on a range of creative media, while the Canon SELPHY CP1500 is a great compact choice.

Exploring the beauty of autumn with your camera can spark ideas for an abundance of inspiring photography projects, so be sure to make the most of this vibrant season while the magic lasts.

Written by Marcus Hawkins