Macro Photos of Backlit Autumn Leaves Explode with Color and Texture

In the Autumn of 2015, I decided to try and capture the beauty of autumn leaves in a different way. My idea was to highlight the leaves from beneath to emphasize the lines and the color of decaying parts.

For more accurate sharpness, I taped the leaves onto a white sheet of paper to make them more flat, and set them on a glass tabletop.

I used 2 speedlites for this process, one under the glass and the other at twelve o’clock, half a meter from the leaf. To my surprise, the results were amazing! The colours just exploded with contrast, providing chaotic textures.

Unfortunately, I was lacking a good tripod so I had to shoot the images hand-held, and all I had to do is snap the image with the texture in focus and the light will do the rest, which is how I ended up with 18 macro texture images.

As for gear that I used, it’s actually really simple and cheap. My camera was a Canon 550D (T2i), the lens an old Russian Zenit Helios 58mm f/2 44M-6 reversed using a Reverse m42 adapter and extension tubes, and the lights 2 yongnuo YN460II flashes.

All of the photos were taken at f/8 and 1/200 of a second hand-held, then edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.

I hope to inspire others and prove that you can do almost anything you imagine, even with low-cost equipment. Autumn of 2016 has just begun, good luck!

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