Try these creative techniques on your next fall or winter photo walk!

What is your favorite season of the year? It is hard for me to choose between spring and fall. Capturing the beauty of each season is one reason I love photography. Each new season brings fresh colors, tones, and subjects to explore. While I always love playing with creative shooting techniques, I find that it brings something extra to my images during fall and winter. Playing with in-camera multiple exposures and intentional camera movement are two easy in-camera techniques to try during this time of year. Let’s review some images and shooting tips to give you some ideas to try this year! 

Multiple Exposure is the first technique I played around with on a recent photo walk. Check your camera manual to set up multiple exposures in your camera settings, once set up it is easy to use.  If your camera does not have that setting, you can always merge images together in post-processing. For something different, I shot these using the dark blend mode in my multiple exposure camera settings. This mode protects the dark tones and colors as you overlay one image over another. This setting helped to multiply the bark, branches and leaves. 

For these images, I handheld the camera and placed the second image almost on top of the first so that it gave a layered look but kept some of the lines of the tree trunk. 

For this image, I overlayed the second image moving it above the first image to create a shadow look. Multiple exposures in the camera or created in post-processing, you can decide how to overlay the images. Taking more than two images will give an even greater layered look. 

Intentional Camera Movement is another technique to try during this season. Moving the camera as you press the shutter in vertical or horizontal movements can create a mysterious scene. This works best with an F-stop of F16 - F22, low ISO, and then adjusting the shutter speed as needed to get the shot. This image was shot with a small movement of the camera. Bigger movements will give you a more abstract look. 

Zooming in on a set of branches or leaves, you can also do ICM movements to showcase the beauty of the color and create movement. Also, for fun, try looking up and using a zoom lens to spin it as you press the shutter for a spiral tree look. 

Here are some examples from winter, exposed trees, and architecture that can be stunningly captured with either method. 

Take time during this season to experiment and play with these techniques. Let me know how they work for your - tag me on IG with any images you create. 

Lori