Photographing Autumn Leaves - DIY Studio
This post is a continuation of my previous post on Autumn Leaves.
Another series of shots that my Canadian friend had taken were close up shots single leaves. The leaves were backlit with a warm glowing sunlight and showed a lot of detail.
As I was looking at the images I reflected to my friend how challenging I found outdoor macro photography to be on days that had even the smallest breeze that might move the subject.
He told me that he got around that problem by photographing these leaves inside and not outside. I was a little shocked at this - because the light looked natural and I on some of them I could see a background with outdoor features.
My friend shared his ’secret’ - he would go on leaf hunting expeditions in a local park and bring back the best specimens to his home.
The front room of his house had a lovely large window with lots of natural light. He would take a leaf and put cello-tape across the stem of the leave and stick it flat against the window. In doing this he created a perfectly still subject (no breezes inside), natural backlight and if he wanted it an ‘outdoor’ background.
He then would set up his camera on a tripod, attach his macro lens and start shooting in his do it yourself Autumn leaf studio.
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That’s a great idea, I never thought to try that.
The tips and news are great. I love when the email arrives as it puts work into it’s proper perspective and renews your enthusiasm for photography !
thats clever
excellent idea
Yes - a very good idea. You would need to have a very clean window because any dirt would be in the same plane of focus as the leaf. Or at least you would need to be prepared to clone out ant dirt.
You would also need to be careful with any reflections from inside the room - using a large aperture would help.
However, that isn’t how I took this one - it was dangling from a Virginia creeper just under the porch where it is naturally sheltered.
Anyway - looks like a good tip for isolating the leaf from the background!
This is great! With our kids we have done some leaf pressing and shadowboxing, but building a leaf studio is a whole new twist on what to do with the souvineers that come home with us after walks. Thanks…