Ritchie Roesch posted his Five Tips for Fall Foliage Photography with Fujifilm X Cameras, which has excellent advice for capturing the fall colours. I especially liked his recommendations on which film simulations to use.
I live in New Jersey, just south of the “New England” states, and we do get some beautiful colours. I have many fall foliage images taken in various nearby locations around my area over the years, but I haven’t explored other New Jersey locations. Also, over the last few years, it seems that fall colour is coming later in the year and last just a few weeks.
As for lenses, I have only the Fujinon 16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR but even looking back at my Nikon images, I shot my fall images mostly at short focal lengths. I don’t do macro photography often enough to justify the cost of a macro lens. Do you have any suggestions for extension tubes for the Fujinon?
Perhaps the best light is “..is when the sun is behind the tree”, but that may be possible, because even “when the sun is low to the horizon”, it is blocked by a mountain range. In the past, I have captured most of my fall images from river beds or the edge of lakes, but I am open to finding locations to try new perspectives.
Except for Hacklebarney State Park, the best fall foliage locations in New Jersey are either at the far north-west (2-hour drive) of far north-east (3-4 hours drive) sections of the state and require extensive hiking to get to the views. Someday I’ll get to those distant
locations. This fall, I hope to at least photograph on the Rock Brook or take my first hike through Hacklebarney State Park.
One new thing I want to try is a new Hoya 77mm Red Intensifier Glass Filter that I bought last year. It’s a ‘didymium’ filter that claims to enhance red, orange and brown subjects to give more colour saturation and contrast. I think it would probably pop fall colours when used with the Velvia film simulation.
