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October 25th, 2011 by Stinkhead

Shutter: 1/800, Aperture: f/1.4, Lens: 50 mm, ISO: 100

This is my favorite time of year for shooting outdoor photos… it’s nice and cool so your subjects won’t be hot and sweaty, and the fall colors add so much warmth and atmosphere to your pics. Also, with the earlier sunset times, we found that the golden hour, the hour before sunset, is a little easier to manage with younger subjects. Click below to see my recommendations for getting awesome pumpkin patch or otherwise fall photos.

Shutter: 1/1000, Aperture: f/1.4, Lens: 50 mm, ISO: 100

The first thing I want to point out is that in spite of your first impulse, do not dress your subjects in orange for photos at a pumpkin patch. Look how much the blue pops out in the photo at the top. It seems most Halloween clothing only comes in 3 shades of pumpkin orange. Between the orange pumpkins and the orange leaves, you’re going to want your subject to really pop out. Blue is the most complimentary, but anything dark and “cool” (blue, green) will help.

Shutter: 1/2000, Aperture: f/2.8, ISO Speed: 100, Lens 70-200mm

Posing the kids in a pile of pumpkins, or a happy couple walking through the leaves is fine and all, but you can get some great, genuine expressions when they’re playing around and letting loose. My son goes nuts when he can run, jump, and collapse in hay. Hay rides, hay piles, hay mazes… it doesn’t matter. I used my 70-200mm zoom lens for this particular hay pic so I could have a further vantage point and get the action wherever it happened. This time he was all over the place. I particularly love how the flying hay adds a bit more depth and energy to this pic. One note to point out, like I’ve said before, be mindful of other parents and their children in busy situations like this.

Shutter: 1/400, Aperture: f/1.4, Lens: 50 mm, ISO: 100

I love love love the backlighting here that gives the hair that halo. Just that razor thin light on the edge of his cheek highlight his boyish grin. Basically you shoot with the sun behind your subject. The trick is making sure that their face isn’t too dark. If you notice in some of the earlier pics, I also have that golden haze in addition to the halo. That haze is glare from the sun. So sometimes you can nab both. But I find the backlighting halo gives some real warmth and “excitement” to portraits. Either in action candids like above, or posed ones like this. It’s pretty easy to figure out the right positioning when you’re out in the field, or pumpkin patch. Make a note of when sunset occurs, and grab this lighting in that hour leading up to sunset. The fuzzy bokeh is warmer too.

Shutter: 1/2000, Aperture: f/1.4, Lens: 50 mm, ISO: 100

Typically its not good to shoot photos in the middle of the day, the lighting is very harsh, and your subjects will be squinting. In addition, there will be harder shadows on the face, and it’s not great for portraits. But sometimes you can get lucky. At this particular market, the roof over the market was a white translucent tarp strung above the rows of pumpkin bins, acting as a diffuser. It’s true, I did add one of those cotton candy washes in photoshop to this particular photo. But this photo was taken moments after the orange shirt photo above.

Shutter: 1/500, Aperture: f/6.3, ISO: 320

Another great thing about Fall Festivals and pumpkin patches are all the unique photo ops. Giant plywood pictures with strategic holes cut out seem to be a staple, but I love the unique opportunities, such as posing in this huge tractor wheel hub, or operating an old fashioned hand pump, for interesting photos that you don’t typically get. In these cases I prefer Americana/heartland to the overly commercialized when it comes to surroundings in photos. Pumpkin patches, fall fests, farms, and vegetable markets just have a warmer, more human feel. So keep your eyes peeled, you never know when you’re going to have a unique moment.

Shutter: 1/250, Aperture: f/1.4, Lens: 50 mm, ISO: 100

Sometimes you get lucky. I was just browsing at the farmer’s market portion after having wrapped our pumpkin patch photos and caught this scene. I thought it looked like a desktop background my Dad would have, so I uncapped my lens (oh the irony) and snapped this last shot of the day. That’ll teach me. I used the highest aperture I could, f/1.4 to make the depth of focus very slim.

The lighting is just unbeatable right now. The fall colors are fantastic, and the opportunities are everywhere. Here are some other examples below.

[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157627846688339″]

Posted in 10&up, 2&up, 3&up, 5&up, 8&up, advice, baby, Boys, DIY, Girls, how to, kids, picture, toddler | Comments Off on Shooting pics of your kids at a pumpkin patch

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