© Foto: Olympus, Andreas Geh
When it gets dark outside

Tips for beautiful photos in autumn and winter

The dark season is not only a challenge for amateur photographers: it is often wet, cloudy, and the sun sets early. Even professionals have to think carefully in the months of November to March how to properly stage outdoor shots. We spoke to the documentary filmmaker and Getty photographer Christian Ender from Berlin and summarized his best tips.

      1. Get up early

      After dawn, the early bird in autumn is often greeted by a very warm, soft light that does not exist in the rest of the year. Pictures with clouds of fog, morning dew or long shadows are particularly beautiful.

      © Foto: Olympus, Frank Rückert
      • Foto: Olympus, Frank Rückert

      2. Capture fog

      Don't be afraid of the fog. He often gives autumn and winter pictures a special, mysterious touch. When the sun breaks through, the fog can shimmer from pale blue to golden yellow. It is best to take photos with backlighting and turn off the autofocus. You should also control the exposure manually. Pictures with a long exposure time, but then from a tripod to avoid a high ISO setting, are often very nice.

      © Foto: Olympus, Andreas Geh
      • Foto: Olympus, Andreas Geh

      3. Go to the woods at noon

      As soft as the light is in the morning and in the evening, the sun can shine strong in autumn and winter at noon and lead to hard shadows. Use this time for a walk in the forest. There the midday hours are exactly the right time to catch brightly colored leaves. This looks all the more powerful in the glistening light.

      © Foto: Pexels
      • Foto: Pexels

      4. Find interesting details

      Objects come into their own in the special lighting mood of the darker season: chestnuts, beetles, mushrooms, branches, leaves, raindrops, puddles, damp spider webs. Come closer!

      © Foto: Olympus, Adlicia Rey
      • Foto: Olympus, Adlicia Rey

      5. Finally snow!

      What could be nicer than white winter landscapes. Everything changes with the color of the snow, and the photos show completely new ways of looking at the familiar. The combination of sun and snow is unbeatable.

      © Foto: Pixabay
      • Foto: Pixabay

      6. Take advantage of the blue hour

      The concept of the blue hour describes the special coloration of the sky during the twilight period after sunset and before nightfall. The light breaks in the atmosphere, this creates the special color, by the way, also at dawn. In photography, the blue hour is used frequently and with pleasure, not only because of the beguiling blue sky. Compared to recordings in absolute darkness, the surroundings are still slightly lighted and visible at the blue hour. The different color temperatures (blue of the sky, orange of the light bulbs, turquoise of the fluorescent tubes) often make such photos unusually colorful.

      © Foto: Dr. Christian Ender
      • Foto: Dr. Christian Ender

      7. Shoot in RAW format

      You will not often find perfect lighting conditions in autumn and winter, so there is a good chance that you will have to rework. In RAW format you can lighten areas that are too dark, repair shadows or correct eroded skies and correct parts of the image that are too dark much more easily than with JPGs.

      © Foto: Olympus, Hayrettin Bilgin
      • Foto: Olympus, Hayrettin Bilgin

      8. Don't forget your tripod

      The most important equipment for photos in the dark season is the tripod. This allows you - see above - to work with long focal lengths and long exposures. It also helps to prevent image noise, which would arise if you were taking photos by hand and would necessarily have to set a high ISO for this.

      © Foto: Olympus, Adrian Rohnfelder
      • Foto: Olympus, Adrian Rohnfelder

      9. Dress warm enough

      Photography takes time. In the cold season this means that you should dress warmly enough and protect yourself against wind and moisture. A jacket with a hood is just as helpful as finger gloves, with which you can operate your camera well.

      © Foto: Olympus
      • Foto: Olympus

      More information and inspiration for good photos: