How to take a beautiful seascape with slow door technology

Lead: Why use the slow door to take a sea view? Or what are the characteristics of the seascape taken by the slow door? Learn more about it with me!

How to take a beautiful seascape with slow door technology will produce special effects. Photographers often use it to record dynamic subjects, such as rolling traffic and the night sky, so we can see that the final image is that the traffic on the road has turned into gorgeous spots, and the night sky has left a beautiful trajectory of the stars.

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Shooting the sea when shooting with a slow door will have a different taste. Endless waves, either under the action of slow door shooting, turn into a dreamlike sea of clouds, or solidify into endless silk strips. If there are clouds floating in the sky during the slow door shooting, it will leave a changeable trajectory, and these effects can not be directly seen by the naked eye, so it will make the viewer produce strange, shocking, quiet and beautiful things. The feeling of waiting will make some dull scenes look much more interesting.

What preparations do you need to make before shooting?

The most important thing before shooting is to step on the spot, unless you have been to the shooting point many times before. Because slow door shooting is mostly concentrated in dawn and dusk, that is to say, at dawn, the past is black, and at dusk, it is black when you come back. If you don't step on the spot in advance, it will be difficult to find a shooting spot in the middle of the night.

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The preparation of photographic equipment will be introduced in detail below. Let me introduce some other preparations first. Because most of them are black at both ends, flashlights and headlights are essential. You should check the condition of the battery before you go. Generally, shooting the sea is mostly concentrated in summer, because there is a high probability of blue sky and white clouds or typhoons in summer, so you should pay attention to sun protection when shooting at noon, pay attention to mosquito bites when shooting in the morning and evening, and remember to wear long-sleeved trousers (it is recommended to choose quick-drying fabrics) or bring mosquito repellent water before going out. Shooting sometimes requires walking on the reef or standing in the sea, and a pair of non-slip upstream shoes is the best choice.

Equipment:

First of all, the camera recommends the digital camera with full-frame sensor, because the full-frame digital camera has higher pixels and better tolerance, and has a familiar perspective relationship since the film age. The lens must be equipped with an ultra-wide lens with a focal length of 16-35mm. Several major camera brands on the market have ultra-wide-angle zoom lenses with this focal length.

Full set of slow door opening equipment and accessories.

As for the filtration system, it generally consists of an adapter, a bracket and a filter plate. Filter plates are divided into GND (medium gray gradient mirror) and ND (medium gray mirror, also called reduction mirror), and GND on the market is divided into soft gradient, hard gradient and reverse gradient. Soft and hard gradations generally use three levels: 0.6, 0.9, 1.2. The shading effect of the gray part of the lens is equivalent to dimming 2, 3 and 4 levels. From the use point of view, the level of 0.9 is the most frequently used. The reverse gradient is a special shot. The darkest part of the gray is at the black-and-white junction of the lens, and the gray gradually becomes smaller from the middle to the side. This filter is most suitable for use when the sun is close to sea level at sunrise and sunset.

Working photos of components used together.

The tripod system includes tripod, tripod head and quick-loading board. Pan-tilt and quick-loading plate only need to be easy to use. Because tripods are shot at the seaside, they are sometimes supported in seawater. Therefore, in order to prevent seawater corrosion, it is best to use a carbon fiber tripod as much as possible, which is light, stable and of course expensive.

When is the best shooting time? Or will shooting at different times have different effects?

As for when to shoot, summer is the first time in a year. In summer in the northern hemisphere, after the subtropical high controls the airflow, it will blow out the southeast wind, commonly known as the ocean monsoon. There will be more and more days with blue sky and white clouds, the air will become transparent and the clouds will become beautiful. These are all important factors in the film.

From a day, it must be sunrise and sunset. These two periods are fascinating periods when the brightness, color and color temperature of light change the most.

Blue temperature before sunrise

Yellow temperature after sunrise

On the other hand, it is both a challenge and a pleasure to pat the door slowly on a typhoon day in summer. Challenges mean that photographers or equipment may get wet by rain or waves, or equipment may be blown down by typhoons without paying attention.

Huge waves in typhoon days

The overwhelming dark clouds in typhoon days.

What you enjoy is that when shooting, the temperature is cool and there are no mosquito bites. The most important thing is that you can't see the other side of the sea. Dark clouds are on top and the waves are rough. When shooting at the slow door, it means that the clouds in the sky are unstoppable, the rocks in the sea are surrounded by bigger and higher clouds, or the waves are described as more powerful rushing.

How to choose the scenery?

That's a good question. There are many factors for the success of a photo. Simply patting the sea slowly must be the choice of the scene. Shooting the sea has its particularity, that is, the horizon of the sea is the same everywhere, and it is all at sea level, so the prospect becomes very important. With a good foreground photo, you are halfway there. Coupled with the weather and clouds, it must be a wonderful movie.

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You can choose rocks, pebbles, dead branches and fishing boats on the beach in the future? By analogy, the choice of prospects should also consider the particularity of the sea, that is, the tide. Some prospects that look good at low tide are submerged at high tide, and some prospects that look good at high tide become tasteless at low tide.

How does light affect the effect of works?

Since photography is called the art of light and shadow, light is very important to the work, and the change of light will cause different shades. For example, the change of color temperature caused by the change of light before and after sunrise and sunset will produce yellow or blue tones.

Backlight shooting, balance the light ratio of each part of the picture through the medium gray gradient lens or shaking the black card.

When you shoot, the clouds in the west are beautiful, so you can shoot along the light.

As far as the direction of light irradiation is concerned, in slow door shooting, backlight is the main one. Photography lovers all know that the biggest problem facing backlighting is the light ratio. It is precisely because of backlight shooting that so many filters, black cards and other auxiliary means are used to ensure the success rate of photos.

At sunrise or sunset, the south has better colors, so you can shoot in the side backlight.

Sunlight shooting, usually at sunrise or sunset, is dyed red and directed to the opposite west or east.

There is also a side backlight, which is also widely used when there is a beautiful sunrise or sunset in the south or north.

Grasp the aperture and shutter when shooting.

Slow-door shooting recommends M file, which can take into account the choice of aperture and shutter. Considering that the foreground and foreground should be within the depth of field, a small aperture is chosen, which is generally within the range of F 1 1-F 18. The choice of shutter depends on the effect of creative intention. From the experience of shooting the sea for many years, the shutter is fixed at 1/.

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The skill of exposure

Here, I will focus on the exposure skills under slow-door shooting, which can also be understood as exposure under weak light, one is the opportunity of exposure, and the other is the technique in exposure. The main time of slow door shooting is in the early morning, and during this time, there are two periods when photos are easy to shine, one is 20 minutes before the sun comes out and the other is 20 minutes after the sun sets. The color temperature changes the most in these two periods, which means that the color of photos can be dazzling.

The second is the exposure method. At dawn and dusk, the light ratio between the sky and the sea is still huge. In this case, you can reduce the light ratio of the scene with the help of GND (Gradient Gray Filter), but sometimes one GND still can't meet the requirements, and two GNDs are prone to color cast, that is, recording in RAW format, and sometimes it is time-consuming and laborious to correct the deviation later. In this case, we can try to use the black card, which should be said to be an important photography skill in slow door shooting. In fact, the black card is a piece of black non-reflective paper or plastic, and shaking the black card is used to block the part of the scene that is too bright during exposure. In order not to hide the black card and leave traces, it should be shaken gently when exposed, so it is also called shaking the black card.

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Pay attention to composition

Composition is generally based on the traditional photographic composition principle, that is, the three-point principle, with sea level as the reference, paying special attention to the level. People can lean when taking pictures of humanities and portraits. Due to people's habit of looking at the sea, the inclined sea level will interfere with the balance of the cerebellum and make people feel uncomfortable. As for whether the sea level is one-third or two-thirds, it depends on the specific situation. If the clouds in the sky are beautiful, the sky may account for two thirds. If you highlight the prospects, the prospects may account for two-thirds. The sea is calm, with a perfect sunset or sunrise reflection. You might as well break away from convention and write a 50-50 composition.

What role will the medium gray gradient lens, subtracter and CPL polarizer play in shooting?

From left to right: 0.6 soft gradient, 0.9 soft gradient, reverse gradient.

ND8, ND 16 and ND32 are commonly used for ND mirrors, which correspond to dimming levels 3, 4 and 5. At present, there are adjustable dimming mirrors on the market, and different levels of effects can be obtained by rotating the lenses, which is convenient to use. However, some photographers also reported that the gray level of the lens is not uniform enough, and the photos will be divided into light and dark after exposure.

From left to right are ND8, ND 16 and ND32 respectively.

CPL is also called linear polarizer, and I believe many color friends are familiar with this filter.

Linear polarizer

Medium gray gradient mirror, antireflection mirror and CPL polarizer are essential in slow door shooting, and they can also be said to be secret weapons in landscape photography. Sunrise and sunset are a good opportunity to shoot weak light, but in this case, the light ratio between the sky and the ground is still large. If the sky is exposed accurately, the ground will be underexposed and darkened; If the ground exposure is accurate, the sky will be overexposed and become dead white. Although some cases can be solved by using synthetic exposure or HDR, if the post-processing of HDR is not well mastered, the pictures sometimes appear false and unnatural. Surrounding synthetic exposure will also bring a lot of workload to the later stage, and it will be very troublesome if the software processing is not skilled in the later stage. So try to do a good job in the early stage and don't rely on the late stage. I always think that vegetables are in the early stage and spices are in the later stage, so we can't put the cart before the horse. The medium gray gradient lens is a filter that gradually transitions from black to gray to colorless and transparent from top to bottom. It has round and square insertion styles.

It is suggested to use the medium gray gradient filter with square insertion style, so that it can be adjusted flexibly when composing. The upper part of the filter is also divided into different grades according to different darkness. You can try to use different gradation lenses according to the light in the scene, but overlapping is not recommended. As mentioned earlier, the problem of color cast, if several pieces are superimposed together, will reduce the imaging quality, so it is best to use it with black cards to reduce the local light, and finally get a whole work with balanced exposure.

Let's talk about the reduction mirror first. Reduction mirrors are also divided into square inserts and round threads. According to experience, it is recommended to use a round thread screwed on the lens, because the square insert will leak light more or less when exposed for a long time. When using the antireflection mirror, it is based on the fact that the scene light can not meet the shooting effect of the slow door, and the antireflection mirror is also divided into several grades. According to experience, when using the five-level antireflection mirror, that is, ND32, it is already dark when looking out from the viewfinder, which brings inconvenience to composition. In this case, you can only construct the picture first, and then screw on the reducing mirror, so you need to be patient when shooting with these filters.

Let's talk about CPL, which is a linear polarizer. This is a special lens, and some photographers almost regard it as a UV lens. At the same time, it is also a subtractor, which is roughly equivalent to ND4, that is, two-stage dimming. CPL is not only used to eliminate the reflection on the surface of the object, but also to make the color of the object more saturated. When taking a slow shot of the sea or water, it has special effects in eliminating the reflection on the water surface and presenting reefs or creatures under the water surface.

Finally, it is suggested that not all filters are effective. If there is one more filter, the picture quality will drop and the color will be much more. Therefore, if the filter can meet the basic requirements, it can be less.

What else do you need to pay attention to when taking a sea view with a slow door?

In addition to what I said before, I need to add that when shooting at the seaside, the size of the waves is unpredictable, and the camera and lens will be wet from time to time. So if there is a waterproof sleeve, it is best to use a waterproof sleeve. Otherwise, wrap the camera and lens in plastic bags or plastic wrap.

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Sometimes the waves are very big, forming water mist in the air. After a while, the lens or filter will be covered with mist. It is recommended to carry absorbent paper or lens cloth with you. After filming, go back to the place with fresh water and wash the tripod. If the camera and lens are also naked and not wet by the waves, it is also recommended to wipe them with a towel soaked in water.

Recommend some suitable places or attractions.

Judging from the Dapeng Peninsula in Shenzhen that I often shoot, there are still many places to shoot. At sunset, there are Tung Chung, Xichong, Yangmeikeng Valley Valley, Jinshuiwan, Nan 'ao Bay, Jinshawan and Egong Bay.

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No matter how far it is, you can definitely shoot in the coastlines such as Huidong and Shanwei. Due to the geographical location, there are many sunrises and few sunsets on the coastline of China. Shooting the sunrise means going out in the middle of the night. It's hard. Photographers who like to take pictures of the sea slowly should have this psychological preparation.