Shooting fall color is so exciting because it is so colorful. Cottonwood and Aspen trees (in the West) turn yellow. The yellow contrasted with the green of other trees or mountains in the background make them stand out. Yellow is also a light color. The human eye tend to go to lighter colors first. So placing yellow trees strategically for good composition works really well because the will naturally attract the views to look at them first. What are some tips to shoot fall colors?

1. Use a polarizing filter. Polarizers are not just for blue skies, we use them when we shoot leaves. They remove sheen (reflection of light of the wax on the leaves). Removing reflection from leaves is not something that can easily be done in post processing. They also saturate the color a little.
2. Shoot when it rains or right after it rained while the leaves are still wet. This make the leaves' color more saturated and make the color a deeper yellow.
3. Use backlighting. You want to shoot the trees with the light coming from behind the trees. When the light shines through the leaves towards you they glow. It gives them life and pop.
4. If you shoot during rain or just after rain but without backlighting shoot when it is overcast. Do not include the overcast drab gray sky in the image. Shooting in this kind of light give you soft light. This enables you to boost the contrast quite a bit. The result is a 3D look and feel.

Here is another example:

And yet another example:

Enjoy the fall and get out shooting.