Tips for Bright & Colorful Fall Photography

We took a trip to the pumpkin patch recently…. it's one of my favorite things to do in the fall! I love any chance I get to take pictures of my kiddos and they love the opportunity to run around and play outdoors for a few hours!! Today I am sharing some of my tips for taking better photos outside in the fall!

1. Take a minute to capture the details. The pumpkin patch is the perfect place to get down low and photograph those bright orange pumpkins. Not only do these photos add a lot to a scrapbook page, but they can be fun to frame and display during the fall season as well!

2. Hand the camera off to someone else so you can be in a few of the pictures. If you shoot with a dSLR in manual mode (which I highly recommend), you can get the settings all in place before letting someone else take the shot.

 

3. If you want a group shot of all the kids, take it at the very beginning of your outing. In this case I asked my kiddos ahead of time to get a few shots together before they started running and playing around. If you get it first, like I did here, there is no pressure or stress the rest of the time, worrying about when and how you are going to gather them all up for that group photograph. (If you noticed we are missing a child here, you are correct. 🙂 He was at different activity at school.)  

4. Follow the little ones around and capture them doing their thing and having fun. On these shots I don't ask them to look at me because I want to remember how much I enjoy just watching them take it all in. Also look for colorful things in the surroundings and position yourself so that they are included in the background of your photos. In this case the bright red barn adds a lot of punch and some great contrast!

5. Plan ahead to arrive at the pumpkin patch or the location of your activity about an hour or so before sunset. This will allow you enough time to get your shots when the lighting is perfect – soft and gorgeous, but before dark. On this day, we stayed at the patch well after dark, but arriving early gave me the chance to get all the pictures I wanted before the sun went down.

6. Look up! I just loved the way the setting sun was hitting the corn stalks and I wanted to capture this picture of them against that gorgeous blue sky!

7. Take advantage of the scenery. Here I saw this perfect little spot where the lighting was beautiful, and I instantly knew it would be a fabulous place to take a photo of my two boys. It doesn't scream fall or pumpkin patch, which is perfect because it is a photo that I can enlarge, frame and display in our home all year long! Bonus points for getting a photo-shoot quality picture of them without even having to go out for a separate formal/planned photo shoot!

I hope you enjoyed my  7 tips for taking bright and colorful photos of your kiddos! I plan to do more posts like this in the future so be sure to check back for more!