Six points of outdoor photography in winter travel

There are many things that need to be seriously considered when going out for photography in cold winter, especially the influence of cold on the photographer himself, the camera and the battery.

First, the photographer himself should take measures to prevent cold and keep warm.

When creating photography in cold areas, we should first pay attention to our own warmth. The photographer's clothing depends on the degree of cold. Generally, you should wear down jacket, electric socks and a thick sweater, and a duck down hat with earmuffs on your head. Hands should wear gloves made of silk or cotton cloth and fingerless gloves with duck down pad. Duck down gloves should be tied to the two cuffs of the backpack with ropes so that they can be taken off at any time. Only wear silk gloves to shoot. Especially the exposed parts such as the nose tip, ears and fingers are the most vulnerable to frostbite, so special attention should be paid to protection and frequent rubbing to speed up blood circulation and enhance cold-proof ability.

Second, pay attention to moisture condensation.

Generally, it is best to hang a digital camera all the time in winter, so that the digital camera can slowly adapt to the outdoor low temperature. If there is no good scenery, you'd better put your digital camera in your bag and don't take it out in a hurry when you are outdoors. The average consumer will have a special digital camera bag, and the heat of the body will be transferred to the bag, so taking the digital camera immediately will also make the lens and digital camera foggy and even water droplets appear. It's better to put the bag down first and take out the digital camera later, which will be much better. At the same time, due to the cold weather, it is best to avoid long-term low-temperature shooting to prevent the machine from aging in advance. In addition, when the digital camera is taken from a cold place to a warmer place, water vapor condensation is easy to occur. At this time, the camera will be automatically protected because the camera tape sticks to the camera drum, and the recording button will temporarily fail, so it is impossible to continue shooting. So pay attention to avoid this situation. If you have to take the digital camera from a cold place to a warmer place, such as returning to your room from the outside, you can put the digital camera in a plastic bag first, then seal it, and then remove the plastic bag when the air temperature in the bag reaches the ambient temperature, which can effectively prevent the occurrence of water vapor condensation.

Once the lens is slightly foggy, remember to open the lens cover and never put the digital camera on your body, which will accelerate the fog. When you go down the mountain, put the digital camera in your bag. Don't take it out for half an hour, it will be foggy. Never open the lens cover when water vapor appears outside the digital camera and lens. Dry the water vapor with a good paper towel first, and then wipe it off with a special cloth for wiping the digital camera.

Third, the choice of reference and background.

Snow is a landscape that has to be photographed in winter, but we must master the skills of shooting snow scenes, otherwise the photos taken will not only be unsightly, but also make people dizzy. The scenery full of snow may seem a bit dull. You can add some colorful objects to add highlights to the snow scene. For example, using pine branches covered with ice or thick snow, lampposts dotted with colorful advertising signs, or buildings as the foreground of shooting can increase the depth of space, improve the expressive force of snow scene, and enrich the connotation of the whole picture, so as not to make viewers bored because of white.

Snow scene is characterized by strong reflection and high brightness. If you simply shoot a piece of white land, you will often feel dazzling and can't see anything clearly. So we'd better choose a dark background when shooting, which will make the snow scene and dark scenery form a strong contrast between light and shade and make the whole picture more layered. If you choose a background with high brightness, it will make the viewer's eyes uncomfortable. The choice of shooting prospect is also very important. Because of the particularity of the snow scene, using branches and buildings covered with ice or thick snow as the shooting foreground can increase the depth of space, improve the expressive force of the snow scene and enrich the connotation of the whole picture, so as not to make viewers feel bored because of whiteness.

Fourth, choose filters and polarizers.

When shooting in winter, it is sometimes necessary to pay attention to the configuration of appropriate filters. For example, in addition to the blue filter, filters of other colors can absorb blue and purple short-wave light, which can weaken the brightness of snow and adjust the color tone. If you choose a neutral gray filter that can reduce the brightness, you can generally reduce the brightness of the scene, achieve the brightness required for exposure, make the image you take more natural, and also protect the lens. Polarizer is also a common filter, which is often used to eliminate or weaken the strong reflection of non-metallic surfaces in photography, thus eliminating or reducing light spots. It can also be used to shoot objects behind the glass, or to express the texture of objects with strong reflection. Polarizers play a very important role in some special photography. When shooting a snow scene, adding a polarizer can absorb the polarized light reflected by the snow, reduce the brightness of the snow and adjust the color tone, while the polarizer does not affect the color of the original scene, making the layering and color saturation of the whole picture quite excellent!

In fact, UV mirrors and polarizers belong to the category of filters, which are good helpers for shooting snow scenes. Although the UV mirror filters out these ultraviolet rays, reducing the blue-purple light waves transmitted to the photosensitive materials, making the foreground clear and improving the contrast and color saturation of the foreground, the digital digital camera is sensitive to red light and infrared light, but not to violet light, so adding the UV mirror to the digital camera will not get the expected filtering effect. Therefore, the filtering function of UV filter for snow shooting is not so necessary, but the protective function of UV mirror is worth mentioning. In the snow, due to many uncertain factors, the lens may be dirty. At this time, a UV lens can protect the lens well. Just wipe the UV mirror after shooting.

Five, white balance adjustment and backlight problems

Because the CCD photosensitive element of digital camera has no automatic adaptation function, in order to approach the human visual standard, digital camera must imitate the human brain and adjust the color according to the light, that is, it needs to adjust the white balance automatically or manually to achieve satisfactory color. In the snow, the influence of the surrounding special environment often makes the automatic white balance function of digital cameras not very accurate, and the accuracy of manual adjustment is better than that of automatic adjustment. So at this time, it is best to adjust the white balance of the digital camera by manual function, because only when the white balance of the digital camera is set accurately can the color be restored correctly. Although the snow scenes are all white, with the change of time and surrounding scenery, white snow will appear different colors. Therefore, when shooting different snow scenes, we should pay attention to adjusting the white balance of digital cameras at any time.

Six, equipment low temperature matters needing attention

In the low temperature environment, the power supply energy of the battery used in the electronic shutter camera is often reduced due to freezing, and the capacity of the battery will "shrink" a lot, about 2/3 of that in summer, and even it can't supply power, which makes it impossible to take pictures. Digital cameras can't work without electricity. So the first thing to pay attention to is the power supply of the camera. Need to prepare several sets of spare batteries. Put the spare battery in your pocket and keep it at a certain temperature. Switch to the camera's built-in cold battery. But be careful not to put other metal objects in your pocket to prevent metal objects from overlapping with battery contacts and causing short circuit.

If you don't have a spare battery, you can take it out of the camera and put it in your arms. After receiving a certain temperature, install it for insulation. When not taking pictures, you can hide the camera in your clothes, or put on a special camera cotton-padded coat to ensure that the battery is kept at a proper temperature and the camera can work normally when taking pictures.

Tripod is also essential for winter photography. Because of the weak light in winter, the shutter speed should not be too high. And sometimes the picture needs a long depth of field and needs to narrow the aperture to shoot. In addition, there are many factors such as the use of filters, and the exposure time should be increased. If you don't use a tripod, it is likely that the camera will be unstable and the picture will be blurred.