Fall photo tip #4: Overcast light for autumn waterfalls

Although sunny weather can really make autumn colors pop, don’t pack up your gear when cloudy skies and rain come your way. Overcast light is great for fall scenes too, especially after a soaking rain. When foliage is dripping with moisture, colors can be intense!

But here’s the key to making it work: use a polarizer filter. A polarizer is designed to remove glare and reflections from shiny surfaces. Rocks, foliage, and other objects in nature often have shiny surfaces, especially when they are wet. A polarizer cuts through the glare, allowing the native color to shine through.

"Wedge Brook Cascades" - Adirondack Mountains

So, for example, with the image above, a few rainy days ensured that everything surrounding this delicate waterfall—Wedge Brook Cascades in the Adirondacks—was soaking wet. By using a polarizer, I was able to cut through the glare created by wet surfaces, allowing the vibrant color of autumn to come through and turning the rocks surrounding the falls black. This latter part is especially critical, as the dark rocks attractively frame the falls. If the rocks were dry, they would appear as more of a lighter gray, and would distract from the falls.

Technical details: Canon 5D Mark II camera, 17-40mm lens, polarizer filter, ISO 100, f/16, 1 second.

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About Ian Plant (275 Posts)

Ian Plant's photographs and instructional articles have appeared in a number of books, calendars, and magazines, including Outdoor Photographer and Popular Photography. Ian writes a regular blog column for Outdoor Photographer online, and he is the author of numerous instructional eBooks and digital processing tutorials. Ian leads several photo tours each year.