Appreciation of Snow and Qinhuai Photography Works

In the later stage of photography, share the processing ideas in the later stage of photography.

What is the most important step in the later stage of photography? Color matching? Synthetic? Skin treatment? Actually, it's not.

For photographers, there is often a bad habit: get an original picture and start all kinds of later attempts. Pull this slider and this place will liquefy. The retouching of the picture is entirely based on feeling and luck.

Little did we know that we neglected the most important step in the later stage of photography, that is, the analysis of the whole photo and the establishment of ideas in the early stage.

When we get an original film (even before the photo is taken), we should carefully observe and analyze the photo to establish the overall shape of the photo, analyze the interest points of the photo, consider the general idea of the later stage, and then use various post-processing technologies and tools to process it.

The same photo can be adjusted into different tones, colors and styles according to different directions of expression, which needs to be roughly determined at the beginning.

Even the scale of the later period is actually related to our purpose. If we prefer to record photos, then we need photos that are closer to reality and more expressive in the later stage, so that we can have more room for operation in the later stage.

Photos with similar compositions in the early stage may have different ideas in the later stage if they express different themes.

The original picture above was taken in Greenland. It was a relatively calm morning and there was no particularly magnificent scenery. I mainly want to express a sense of loneliness. So the main tone of the later period is as follows:

The overall tone needs to be dark, which will be more depressing. The contrast does not need to be very high, which sets off the sense of tranquility in the environment.

The color saturation should not be too high, otherwise the mood will be too warm. The color is colder, which brings a sense of tranquility.

Besides people and mountains, there shouldn't be too many details in other places, especially those that attract attention. Therefore, although the sky is already smooth, the faintly visible clouds need to be further blurred and erased, and too many details on the water surface need to be subtracted.

With the overall thinking and direction, we can achieve a more unified artistic conception in the later period, so that there will be no red hills that shock and warm above, and the quiet and deserted water below, and the later adjustments will conflict with each other.

The above photo was also taken in Greenland, where a person was standing (sitting) on a stone.

But because of the different themes I expressed, I prefer to associate him with words such as hope and brilliance in this photo, so my later thoughts are completely different:

Tone should not be too dark, contrast should be sufficient, giving people hope.

Colors need to be warmer and more saturated, so they are brighter and warmer.

The details of the picture should not be too dull, and there should be a feeling that there is a starry sea in front, so I decided to add some clouds in the later part of the sky.

Here, you can directly use the Yun Tiankong function in Kebe Xiutu to add beautiful sunset glow with one click.

I mentioned in the book "The Late Basis of Landscape Photography" that technology serves form and form serves content.

So when we post-process, the first thing we need to determine is the content and direction. Is it a magnificent scenery, a quiet atmosphere or a reflection of the heart?

After the direction of expression is determined, the formal tone can be determined, whether it is colder and darker or warmer and brighter.

What kind of color matching tools and post-technology should be used specifically is the details of the specific implementation later.

When we make a group diagram, we need to confirm and unify the form of the group diagram from the beginning.

For example, the above group of original pictures is the street view of Greenland town that I captured in the snowstorm. The original picture is bright, dark, neutral and cold.

If I want to publish them in the form of a group diagram, I need to unify their colors and tones from the perspective of the group diagram as a whole. This picture can't be bright and cheerful, and the next one is low-key and depressing.

Writing a composition needs to be determined first, and when we retouch pictures, we also need to determine the theme, ideas and direction first.

When we are writing a composition, we usually make up our minds before we start writing. Although photography projects should be like this, the real world is always full of complexity and surprises. When we shoot in the early stage, we may still rely on intuition to capture.

So at the beginning of the later period, we need to re-examine our photos and extract those interesting points.

The original picture above is an iceberg taken by drone aerial photography, which is very interesting. I am afraid I caught the hidden part at the bottom of the iceberg.

The interest point of this photo is undoubtedly an iceberg. The boat next to it is also very interesting, because as a frame of reference, it sets off the grandeur of the iceberg.

The land behind provides some background information, such as icebergs on the coast, but these are not very interesting or important information. So when I was thinking later, I decided to do another composition and cut off the extra parts.

In this case, the content is more unified and visually more shocking.

The above picture records a cold fishing village in the morning, and it looks messy as a whole. If you don't make a choice, the reader may not know what the photographer is going to show.

Therefore, I decided to keep only one main point of interest in the picture, that is, bright street lamps, and two secondary points of interest, weak house lights and pedestrians passing by in a hurry.

In this way, by cutting the map and darkening other scenes in the later period, the interest points of the picture can be intuitively extracted, so that viewers can feel the different atmosphere of the Arctic fishing village.

Identifying points of interest not only means secondary cropping, but also affects local brightness and color.

For example, autumn scenery in Patagonia above, we need to analyze the main scenery before the later period begins.

Fitzroy Snow Mountain in the middle of Rizhao Jinshan is undoubtedly the highlight of this film, which needs to be highlighted.

There are many ways to stand out. For example, the hill on the left side of Jinshan actually looks higher than our interest point because of the distance, so it needs to be cut off.

In order to highlight Jinshan, we need to make the color and lightness of Jinshan "stand out" from the photos.

Therefore, the sky needs to darken later, and it is better to cool down, so that the golden peaks can firmly occupy our eyes in the picture through the particularity of hue, saturation and lightness.

Even sometimes, at first glance, it looks like a scrap film, and we can find the bright spots in the photo through later thinking and observation.

The aerial photos of Guilin in the rain above are undoubtedly not eye-catching.

However, if we look closely, we can still find some interesting places. For example, foggy peaks are particularly layered, and the roads and peaks in the picture are particularly geometric.

However, because the complicated information in the original picture, such as dim colors, messy houses and dense trees, will attract readers' attention to these boring places, they will think that the photo is a piece of scrap iron.

If we boldly remove these irrelevant colors, details and information in the later stage and extract rich geometric structures in the picture, then we can "turn waste into treasure".

In the later stage of photography, technology is the foundation and the key is thinking.

Many photos don't need complicated post-processing, just need to unify the color of the picture, strengthen the tone and highlight the main body.

For example, the original film of the German castle above was almost finished in the later period of Kebe's retouching. As long as the idea of strengthening the gradual change of the sky and highlighting the glory of the castle is determined, it will be done soon.

Here, you can directly use the "intelligent color correction" function in Kebe's retouching to unify the color of the whole film, strengthen the tone and highlight the main body.

After using the intelligent color correction function, a series of schemes will appear, just choose one of them;

Although the appearance of many photos has changed greatly in the early and late stages, the technology used is actually very simple.

For example, the original film above mainly uses deepening and thinning tools in the later stage, which is a simple tool I introduced in the article "Learn to deepen and dilute tools to improve the expressive power of photos".

More importantly, it is necessary to analyze the photos and know where they become lighter and darker. This is the key to make a photo look very different later.

The more detailed the picture, the better.

In the original sea ice above, I decided to remove most of the details in the white ice and snow, highlighting the lines and color contrast of the coastline.

But the less details, the better.

For the photo of the mountain peak above, I decided to further enhance the details of the water surface texture and the flower texture in the foreground with a brush in the later stage, and the sky also made an inconspicuous gradient.

Direct use of Kebe retouching in the artistic tone and sky function.

Finally, the effect diagram is obtained:

Need more details or less details? In the final analysis, where the details in the picture need to be dealt with is actually a question of thinking, which requires us to see more, think more and analyze more.

The most critical step in the later stage of photography is actually to analyze the picture and confirm the creativity. Once the idea is determined, the final form of the photo is also determined.

Whether to use curves, color balance or brushes to do specific processing is actually not as important as everyone thinks.

Technology determines the lower limit, and thought determines the upper limit. The most important step in the later stage of photography is to confirm the creativity!