10 Tips For Shooting Film This Fall

Summer is often seen as the prime season for film shooting with long days, lively crowds, and destination locations but I think the potential for capturing some of the most stunning film shots comes in the fall. The rich, natural color palette of autumn is perfectly suited to the way film naturally renders hues. To help you maximize the potential of fall’s vibrant shades on film, here are 10 tips and tricks, blending technical knowledge and creative approaches that can elevate your film work to the next level this fall season.

Header Image by Willem Verbeeck on the Long Weekend 35mm Film Camera

1. Choose Film Stocks That Enhance Warm Tones

Different film stocks handle color differently, and fall is all about rich, warm tones. For vibrancy, it's best to choose film stocks that beautifully handle reds, oranges, and yellows. Kodak Portra 400/800 is an excellent choice for natural, warm colors with a balanced dynamic range. Portra’s ability to preserve detail in both shadows and highlights helps prevent overblown whites or too-dark shadows in high-contrast scenes.

For more saturated results, I would recommend Ektar 100. It’s known for its vibrant and bold color renditions, perfect for bringing out pops of color in fall foliage. If you’re looking for punchy, movie-like color renditions, this is the film stock to go for in fall. I would avoid low-saturation stocks that could make the scene look muted. However, if you are specifically going for a moody or faded fall look, I would go for a neutral black-and-white film stock like Ilford HP5.

2. Embrace Early Morning and Late Afternoon Light

Fall colors are most vibrant during the golden hours, early morning and late afternoon when the sun casts a warm, low light that accentuates reds and yellows. This soft, warm light minimizes harsh shadows and helps give your colors a really nice glow. Shooting in these hours also adds texture to your images by creating longer shadows and subtle contrasts, especially among the leaves. If you want the warmest tones, try positioning yourself with the sun at a slight angle to the scene for more depth

3. Use Polarizing Filters to Reduce Glare

A polarizing filter is an optical filter that reduces reflections, glare, and haze by blocking specific polarized light waves. Bright, clear autumn days unfortunately often come with glaring sunlight that can end up washing out fall colors on your film rolls. A circular polarizer will help deepen the contrast in the sky and eliminate unwanted reflections from wet surfaces or leaves. This allows the fall colors to come out richer and more saturated in your final image! A polarizer can also bring out the blue in the sky, which contrasts beautifully with fall foliage and won’t leave you with an overexposed, blown out sky.

4. Experiment With Push Processing for Dramatic Contrast

Fall offers moody and dramatic skies, making it a great time to experiment with push processing. Pushing your film by a stop or two can really boost the contrast in overcast conditions, making the film’s colors more intense and adding a punchy edge to your images. This processing technique works better with slower speed films like Kodak Ektar 100 if you want to pull more saturation and contrast out of flat, low light situations. Just remember to account for the increase in grain and potential changes in tonal balance when you push. Don’t know how much to push your film for the best results. Check out Nice Film Club’s free push/pull calculator!

5. Incorporate Reflections in Water

Autumn is a season rich in dreamy bodies of water like lakes, streams, and puddles. Use reflections creatively to enhance your film photo compositions. When you use the natural mirroring effect of water in your images, under the correct lighting conditions, you can essentially double the colors in your frame. To expose correctly between the reflection and the actual scene, you should be metering for both the water’s reflection and the surrounding scene and adjusting to make sure you don’t lose any highlight or shadow detail.

6. Play With Foreground Elements for Layered Depth

Incorporating elements like fallen leaves or foreground branches can create a layered look, adding more emotional depth to your autumn scenes. Try shooting through branches or framing your subject within trees for color flares in the foreground. Layering helps guide the viewer’s eye through the image, creating a three dimensional feel that highlights the depth of fall’s color gradients.

For example, placing a subject in the foreground against a backdrop of trees, with some leaves blurred in the foreground, can create a visually striking image that incorporates the feel of fall while not losing focus on the subject of the photo.

7. Use Color Gel Filters to Fine Tune Fall Hues

For an advanced level of color control, try using color gel filters to subtly alter either the warmth or coolness of your fall shots. Gel filters allow you to either intensify or neutralize certain hues in camera without needing to rely on post production. For example, an 85B warming filter can deepen reds and oranges, making fall foliage even more vivid, while a cooling filter (like an 80A) can tone down the warmth, creating more balance between the colors and cooler elements like the sky or water inside your image.

These filters are especially helpful when working with daylight balanced films like Kodak Ektar or Portra, which can sometimes struggle with maintaining warmth in shaded or overcast conditions. Experimenting with these filters gives you more control over how your camera interprets autumn tones.

8. Use Longer Focal Lengths to Compress Fall Foliage

Longer focal lengths (e.g., 85mm or 135mm) can compress perspective, making backgrounds appear closer to your subject and intensifying the density of colors. This can be especially effective with fall foliage, as it emphasizes the richness of trees clustered in the distance and isolates sections of color in a more concentrated way. This compression effect creates an almost painterly feel, making it look as if the colors are layered within the frame.

9. Shoot Into the Sun for Dreamy Flare Effects

By shooting directly into the sun or allowing it to peek through branches, you can create flare and slight haze effects that add a sense of warmth and softness to your fall photos. This can give images an ethereal quality, where the sunlight diffuses and blends with the fall colors. For controlled flare, use a lens with fewer coatings or even a vintage lens, as modern multi-coated lenses are designed to minimize these effects.

10. Experiment with Expired Film for Unexpected Tones

Fall’s natural color palette pairs interestingly with the unpredictable results of expired film. Expired films tend to have color shifts, faded tones, or enhanced grain, all of which can add a dreamy or vintage quality to fall scenes. Films like expired Kodak Gold or Fujifilm Superia can yield unexpected greens, pinks, or deeper reds, enhancing the nostalgic quality of autumn. Just remember that expired film’s results can be unpredictable, so bring a fresh roll as backup!