... blog post:
As the year advances and the autumn foliage presents itself in all its riotous splendour, it's a great opportunity to brush up that old contra-jour technique and make use of optics of classic design that together give you the maximum ability to make your photos' colours pop and glow.
![](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=970x10000:format=jpg/path/sc2cdead4efa54ea0/image/ibf7b121b70a90095/version/1633772517/image.jpg)
Now I have already waffled on about the subject of classic lenses here so I am going to avoid repeating myself. Rather I just wanted to say a very few words about photographing foliage in autumn.
![](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=970x10000:format=jpg/path/sc2cdead4efa54ea0/image/i16c1920df77057ef/version/1633772585/image.jpg)
If you want accentuate that wonderful autumn glow and colour depth then first and foremost you need to photograph your subject contra-jour or more simply put, against the light. That means you will need a sunny day with the light directly behind your subject or at an acute angle side lighting your subject or placing your subject against a bright (preferably blue) sky but critically in every case with the light coming through the leaves.
![](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=632x10000:format=jpg/path/sc2cdead4efa54ea0/image/ia72c7dff457635f4/version/1633772630/image.jpg)
This causes the colours to be lit up and the whole subject to be brightly illuminated. Add to that a lens which has that characteristic classic organic 'look' and your photographs will pop with colour and have a 3-D feel.
![](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=632x10000:format=jpg/path/sc2cdead4efa54ea0/image/ife757795bfcc523d/version/1634395400/image.jpg)
Compared to a picture where the light is reflected from the same subject (as in the one above) rather then passing through it, you can see the difference that working contra-jour makes. Mind you, a classic lens is no slouch in making the colour pop even in an image like this when taken in reflected bright side lighting, it is just a bit more subdued and subtle in its rendering.
![](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=127x10000:format=jpg/path/sc2cdead4efa54ea0/image/ib2bb5c63de4dded0/version/1633772849/image.jpg)
Modern lenses but of classic formulation come into their own at this time of year, like my Zeiss C Sonnar 50mm f1.5 ZM with which all of the above picture were made. In the end though it is, as ever, all about the quality of the light.