Leaf of Light
The light broke through the canopy for a split second, turning an ordinary maple leaf into a little lantern. I just had to catch it.
Photographed at Saunderskill Farms, New York, with the Nikon Z7II. The entire shot hinges on backlighting - the sun is placed directly behind the leaf, which turns the color translucent and exaggerates all the fine details. A wide aperture keeps the background soft and lets the warm and cool tones play against each other.
This technique is simple, but it forces you to control flare and highlights carefully. I used a branch to partially block the sun, then focused on the leaf’s front edge to keep the glow crisp. Slight underexposure helps preserve saturation when you’re shooting straight into bright light.
• Dial exposure compensation down to protect the highlights.
• Wide apertures (around f/2.8–f/4) create the soft, painterly fall background.
• If autofocus struggles with the light, switch to manual and use edge contrast.
• Underexposing by a third or two-thirds stop keeps color from blowing out.
Leaf of Light
The light broke through the canopy for a split second, turning an ordinary maple leaf into a little lantern. I just had to catch it.
Photographed at Saunderskill Farms, New York, with the Nikon Z7II. The entire shot hinges on backlighting - the sun is placed directly behind the leaf, which turns the color translucent and exaggerates all the fine details. A wide aperture keeps the background soft and lets the warm and cool tones play against each other.
This technique is simple, but it forces you to control flare and highlights carefully. I used a branch to partially block the sun, then focused on the leaf’s front edge to keep the glow crisp. Slight underexposure helps preserve saturation when you’re shooting straight into bright light.
• Dial exposure compensation down to protect the highlights.
• Wide apertures (around f/2.8–f/4) create the soft, painterly fall background.
• If autofocus struggles with the light, switch to manual and use edge contrast.
• Underexposing by a third or two-thirds stop keeps color from blowing out.