Shooting skills of low-light street documentary

Humanistic documentaries require speed and accuracy, but it is getting darker and darker until there is only a faint light on the roadside. Can photographers still capture real and natural pictures? Let's take a look at Bokeer Yikun's sharing, and see how to conduct street documentary in the dim light environment at night!

choice device

The equipment used is very simple, the body is Canon EOS 5D Mark Ⅱ II, and the lens is Zeiss 25/2.8 manual lens.

At night, most of the light sources for humanities documentaries come from street lamps and roadside shops, and most of them are weak light sources. The high sensitivity of Canon EOS 5d markⅱII II can basically meet the needs of on-site shooting. Generally, I will use a sensitivity of about 800- 1000 and an aperture of about F5.6 (the EXIF information of this group of films is displayed as f1.8); Because Canon camera can't get the aperture parameters of manual lens); Choosing a 25/2.8 manual wide-angle lens is a matter of personal preference. I prefer the color performance of this Zeiss lens. 25 wide-angle lens can basically get close to the subject. Because it is a wide-angle lens, the focal length is shorter. Generally, the focal length can be set to ∞ (slightly back, depending on the feeling). When the aperture is set to F5.6, you don't need to focus, just press the shutter.

Understand the difference between daytime and nighttime humanistic documentary photography

The difference between documentary shooting at night and documentary shooting during the day;

The night beat in the weak light. In order to ensure that the shooting does not damage the environment, the documentary humanities basically do not need flash lights, and the light is not ideal. The shutter speed used at night is still slower than during the day. Therefore, it is difficult to accurately capture the moment, and it is easy to shoot the virtual.

Grasping the dynamic moment requires the camera to have a relatively high-speed shutter, which needs high sensitivity to support, and high sensitivity brings more noise.

Facing the dynamic shooting object, it is difficult to keep the camera stable and ensure the image clarity by hand shooting.

Most of the light sources at night come from one direction, while there is no light source in the other direction. This makes the image light bigger, the front light source is too sufficient, and it is easy to be overexposed. The backlight part is basically black, and the photographed image will cause great loss of dark details. ...

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Know yourself: Find the most important picture elements.

My subject matter has been constantly adjusted in recent years. Now my eyes are mostly on the real life of ordinary people, so what attracts me most is their truest and most primitive side at night.

Handsome men and beautiful women coming and going, elegant or playful, bosses and salespeople waiting for customers in the store, young girls selling at the door, street vendors pulling customers, customers bargaining in shopping, etc ... Here, the most attractive picture is the true embodiment of life without any interference.

The most important element in a photo is the moment that best reflects the humanistic care. It is the moment when you laugh, cry, say or feel sad, which can resonate with your thoughts and touch you. The interesting point brought by the picture can catch the eye of the viewer and make the picture like a story, and the more you tell it, the more interesting it becomes.

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Common night light conditions in humanistic documentaries

Spotlight should be said to be very general, mostly street lamps in urban streets, various colored lights in shops, incandescent lamps pulled by vendors themselves, and weak light sources emitted by various stall stoves when they burn. Generally speaking, the scene light source is weak, scattered and chaotic, and the light is relatively large, which brings great difficulty to shooting.

"People's Notes Urban Night Archives" by Yi Kun

Open your eyes wide and pay attention to the scene around you.

The scene of sweeping the street at night changes rapidly, and stories may happen at any time, such as lovers at night, bargaining in front of vendors, wage earners and so on. As long as you can calm down and take pictures slowly, you have a chance to take good photos. If you can often observe and ponder such a scene, you will find the law. In addition, if you shoot according to a certain theme, you can also capture a special series of works.

"People's Notes Urban Night Archives" by Yi Kun

Avoid the shadow left by the light and fill the protagonist's face with light.

At night, humanistic photography requires a high grasp of light. However, there are still techniques that can help us grasp the light and shadow performance of the picture:

When there are many people coming and going, it will play a role in shielding the light source. You can ask the blocked person to give way and generally cooperate.

People waiting for asylum will get out of the way before taking pictures.

Shooting with clothes and other objects that can reflect the light source as the light source requires keen observation and snapshot skills to capture the moment.

Find the best time for the light source to shine on the face.

Actively communicate with the subject and guide the subject to face the light source.

Changing the shooting angle, if the photographer shoots in a normal standing position, it is difficult to capture the ideal facial expression. In fact, in the process of shooting many scenes, it is difficult for us to determine the shooting angle in advance, which requires constant attempts to discover, guide and capture through shooting. ...

"People's Notes Urban Night Archives" by Yi Kun

Close to the subject without affecting the story of the picture.

Everyone has their own different perspectives and shooting habits, and many skills need to be communicated and understood in actual shooting.

In order not to affect the plot of the picture, I often use blind shot, supplemented by real-life shooting. For example, this group of films, I basically shot blindly (accounting for more than 90% of all films). If you shoot normally, when you pick up the camera and take a view from the viewfinder, it will probably arouse the vigilance of the subject, which will lead to the interruption of shooting and the inability to capture the natural state.

When you are in blind shot, you can hang the camera around your neck and use your stomach as a support point, or put it on the shelves of vendors, chopping boards, pots and pans, lampposts around you, trash cans ... This will not only not easily attract the attention of the subject, but also stabilize the camera and make up for the weakness of insufficient shutter speed in low light. In addition, live view is also a good choice, because the location of the live view camera is changeable, which is not easy to attract attention, and it can also confuse the subject to look at photos instead of taking pictures, so that the subject can shoot unconsciously in the natural state. I believe there are still many filmmakers who have their own good methods. You can try as long as you can make a film.

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When you find filming, take the initiative to communicate with them.

This kind of situation is the most common, and it may happen at any time, depending on the situation encountered during shooting.

When you are found shooting and refuse to shoot, especially when you strongly refuse to shoot, you can basically give up without causing unpleasant results.

When shooting, the photographer can smile at the subject to apologize and gain understanding.

When you meet your favorite food or supplies, buy some appropriately, so that most of them will not refuse to shoot again. I once met a case where the subject asked to buy his things before shooting.

According to the appearance characteristics of the object, the processed items, etc. Praise him well and gain the recognition of the other party, which will also make the other party less resistant to shooting.

If you find that the other person is a talkative object, you can chat with the other person and find opportunities to capture the moment. There is a situation that needs attention. Many private business owners and vendors will think you are a media reporter or something when they see you holding a big camera at night. They're afraid you're filming for exposure. You can take the initiative to explain the situation to them If the other person knows that you have no malice towards him, you will generally be allowed to continue filming.

In all these cases, the photographer should show your friendly attitude towards the other party, communicate from the perspective of putting yourself in the other party's shoes, and let the other party feel your concern and care for him. After a few commonplaces, the relationship between the photographer and the subject is naturally no longer tense.

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