Autumn Leaves Shooting Diary (Patreon)

I have now done this Autumn leaves theme shoot twice, with several years in between.

This was from the shoot I did in 2013, and I always thought I could do better, 

So why did it take so long between attempts? That leads to:

THOUGHT NUMBER 1 - WHEN

In Melbourne (where I am shooting this) there is only a window of a few weeks in which the leaves can be collected. Too early and they have not turned and started dropping, too late and they have decomposed into mush. So for the last two years I did not get myself organised in time.

THOUGHT NUMBER 2 - WHERE

OK, so it would be really nice to do this out in the forest with soft evening light filtering through the trees. But in Australia that presents some problems: our forests are evergreens (usually eucalypts) so you can't find this floor covered in leaves in nature, and in Melbourne at this time of year it is cold and often wet. So for the sake of the model, we work in a studio. This also makes the shots from above easier, as there is no need to lug a ladder into the bush.

THOUGHT NUMBER 3 - GATHERING LEAVES

It turns out Melbourne's suburbs are full of deciduous trees, so just drive around looking for (mainly oak) trees that have gone a good colour and pick up the leaves underneath. You want to get them as freshly fallen as possible, as they can dry out quickly and then lose their colour and texture.

How much to gather? Lots. More than you think. I got some big garden waste bags from the supermarket - for the shoot above I only filled 3 bags and in the shot above they did not quite go to the edge of frame (not too big a problem, see thoughts on editing below), so this time I filled 6 bags (plus some extras including the extra big leaves that a friend I was shooting with gathered).

THOUGHT NUMBER 4 - SHOOTING

Start by putting down a big sheet or cloth backdrop, preferably black. This serves two purposes - if there are any gaps in the leaves it will be less obvious, and at the end of the shoot it will be easier to pick up the leaves and dispose of them.

Then put the ladder in place. I fortunately was able to use a ladder that has a stable platform at the top, so could lean over a little to get right over the model - different studios will offer different options, but ideally you want to be right above the model.

In the 2013 shoot I think I put the lights too high, and had lights on both sides of the model. As a result, the light came out fairly flat. This time I placed two lights quite low on the far side of the model. This created the dramatic lighting I wanted, but gave too much contrast (the near side of her body was black), so I introduced a light on low power right under the ladder for some fill. All lights had large softboxes on them.

Kiko is a very experienced model and needed little direction, it was enough to just let her play in the leaves, with a bit of guidance to produce a mix of Instagram safe and more revealing shots.

THOUGHT NUMBER 5 - EDITING

This shoot is all about the warm colours, both of the leaves and of Kiko's skin tone and hair. So in post I made the colour balance a lot warmer, and played with the light levels quite a bit (lowered exposure, increased contrast).

One nice thing about the leaves is that they are so easy to clone, so in a couple of shots where I caught the edge of the pile of leaves, leaves can be cloned into the gap and it is unnoticeable.

I hope you have got some value out of my thoughts on this shoot. In a few hours the photos from Kiko's shoot will go up.