Techniques of shooting red and yellow autumn leaves

Autumn puts colorful clothes on the earth, and autumn wind paints the sky with clear blue and scatters white clouds. It's time to cover the mountains with red leaves again. Photographers have emerged in the intoxicating beauty, and they want to solidify the beauty on film and let it stay in the world forever. Below I have arranged the shooting skills of autumn leaves with red and yellow leaves for you, hoping to help you!

1. Flexible use of backlight and transmitted light

Light is an artistic carving knife given by God to photographers. For the bright theme of red leaves, the use of light is a key factor in creating personalized works. Slight changes in light can make red leaves appear completely different colors. Even in the same place, with the change of time, the angle of light irradiation changes, and the red leaves will show different expression changes. Especially the change of forward light and backward light can make the color saturation of red leaves change strongly.

Polarizer is a common filter for shooting red leaves. Because it can effectively inhibit the reflection on the surface of red leaves, people can see the original color of red leaves, especially in the case of smooth and sidelight.

Under the conditions of reverse light and transmitted light, we see that the transmitted light effect of light passing through leaves is purer and more vivid than the reflected light effect when it is in the light. Even if the red leaves look ordinary in the light, when we change the angle, we may see bright red leaves with a sense of transparency.

Shooting on sunny days is conducive to obtaining works with great contrast, but at this time, the tone of leaves is relatively hard. If you want to show the soft side of red leaves, cloudy weather may be more suitable. Grasping and using light reflects the photographer's style and characteristics.

Clever arrangement of background

Although red leaves are the undisputed theme in red leaf photography, bright red leaves are indeed the most attractive objects, but if the choice of background is ignored, even the beautiful red leaves will lose their luster. Even if you take a close-up of red leaves, the background factors should not be underestimated. When shooting works with red leaves, we should pay more attention to the selection and layout of the background environment.

First of all, the choice of background should highlight the theme of red leaves, and you can't pretend to be the owner. By cleverly choosing the environment where the red leaves are located, it is not only conducive to the foil of the red leaves, but also shows the organic connection between the red leaves and the surrounding environment. According to this principle, choosing and arranging the color and brightness of the background can create dramatic works of red leaves.

According to the selected background, it is very important to increase or decrease the exposure compensation appropriately. If the background is bright fog, the exposure compensation should be increased, and if it is dark background such as valley or rock, the exposure compensation should be reduced appropriately. The increase or decrease of compensation depends on the contrast and proportional distribution of red leaves and background. Using a wide range of peripheral exposure is an effective means to obtain successful works.

3. Harmonious colors give life to the works.

As the saying goes, "Grass grows in autumn." Once vibrant leaves, when they are about to wither, burn their own lives and give their final glory to people. Besides bringing beauty to the world, red leaves always bring endless thoughts to people. Therefore, when we shoot red leaves, we are often not satisfied with expressing them in a straightforward way, but want to make them more beautiful and moving.

Clever color matching is an effective way to highlight the color charm of red leaves. Generally speaking, choosing a color with good compatibility and coordination with red leaves can make the color of red leaves more gorgeous. In order to avoid usurping the role of the master and weaken the expressive force of the main body of the red leaves, the color matching should be soft and plain. Usually, colors such as yellow, green, white or light pink can form a good collocation effect with red leaves. Especially yellow, yellow is also the color of autumn, and the scenery of yellow leaves and red leaves is very common, so red and yellow collocation is a good choice. Black can also make the red leaves look more eye-catching, and it is possible to create exciting works with trees, peaks or dark sky as the background.

No matter what color you choose, the key is to make it in a virtual focus state, forming a blurred background or foreground. Usually a telephoto lens is used, with a large aperture and a focus on the red leaves. Another thing that must be paid attention to is to avoid messy colors in the picture, and the choice of telephoto lens is also based on this consideration.

4. Properly handle the performance of the sky

The sky in autumn is clear and thorough. Even if there are clouds, most of them are cirrus clouds and stratocumulus clouds, so people have a specific feeling about autumn. The words "crisp autumn" and "clear sky" are the summary of this feeling. When shooting red leaves, the sky with obvious autumn characteristics is also integrated into the picture, which can create unique works of autumn scenery.

Proper sky performance can positively contrast the theme of red leaves. For example, the contrast between the clear blue sky and the red leaves is strong, which can make the red leaves look more gorgeous and is the sky background that is often chosen when shooting red leaves. The proportion of the blue sky in the picture often determines the success or failure of the work.

On a clear autumn day, the red leaves and the sky show excellent colors, and the two complement each other, which will surely lead to colorful works. If you skillfully choose high-altitude cirrus clouds or stratocumulus clouds with obvious autumn characteristics, you can shoot red leaves with strong emotional colors.

5. Matters needing attention in digital photography

Because digital photography is easy to adjust in the later stage, the exposure control in the shooting process is easy to handle at will. In fact, only when the image exposure is accurate can the post-processing achieve the ideal effect. If the exposure control is too wide, especially the overexposure is serious, it is difficult to remedy the excellent post-processing skills.

When shooting red leaves, if the exposure transitions, there will be a phenomenon of reduced saturation and lack of layering. Generally, in the case of forward lighting, special exposure compensation is not needed, while in the case of reverse lighting, necessary exposure compensation is needed according to the actual situation. Especially when you shoot from the trunk of a red leaf, the brightness in the center of the picture directly affects the exposure, which requires special attention. Generally, manual exposure mode can be adopted, and it does not depend on the automatic mode of the camera. Another advantage of using manual mode is that it is easier to adjust the composition.

Shooting red leaves generally requires a large depth of field, but don't shrink the aperture too small. If the aperture is too narrow, light diffraction will occur and the image quality will be reduced. Because the imaging element of digital camera is smaller and its depth of field is larger than that of 35 mm film, even if the imaging element with similar APS-C frame size is used, its depth of field is larger than that of 35 mm film. So be sure to pay attention to the depth of field control. Using a telescope or macro lens with a small depth of field may be a good choice.

When shooting with a film camera, the film is often selected according to the characteristics of different types of film, so that the color and contrast meet the creative intention. Digital cameras can be easily adjusted according to the creative intention through image processing. Satisfactory works can be obtained by adjusting the color scale and color saturation. Post-adjustment is a link in digital photography creation, so we should actively face image processing, just like choosing film.

Autumn is sultry and autumn leaves are charming. It is refreshing to see the autumn leaves in the north, and there is even a shocking joy of instant dizziness. For her, it is worth our whole life to find. Gossip digress, said to the point of photography.

The autumn colors in the northern mountainous areas are everywhere and colorful. I looked at them excitedly. I don't feel anything pleasing to the eye except the color. Some people may sigh, why didn't I see such a beautiful scenery when I visited the site in person? This is due to the photographer's aesthetics, the grasp of timing, and the application of photography skills and methods.

After photographing autumn leaves several times, I gradually realized some methods and taught me how to photograph autumn leaves.

Trees are full of autumn leaves, patches of clusters, swaying in the wind, it is difficult to capture and grasp the most beautiful moment, and it is not easy to see crystal clear branches and leaves. After several exercises, my experience is that the key to shooting beautiful autumn leaves lies in expressiveness.

1. It's better to take a middle shot than a long shot, and it's better to take a close shot than a middle shot:

In the long run, it is easy to have a color, no details, unclear branches and leaves, no three-dimensional sense, difficult to express sharpness and lack of expressiveness;

Shooting the middle scene can take into account some colors and details, the three-dimensional sense is not prominent, and the expressive force is still insufficient;

Close-up can give consideration to color and details, highlight parts, highlight texture and express the charm of autumn leaves, which is quite critical;

2. Smooth is not as good as side light, and side light is not as good as backlight;

Shooting along the light, bright colors, lack of three-dimensional sense/texture, lack of expressiveness;

Side light shooting, color and light combination, autumn leaves show distinct layers, patchwork, clear outline and strong texture;

Backlight shooting, combination of color and light, mainly light, clear veins of autumn leaves, strong texture. Between shadows, the cascade of leaves and the intensity of light and shadow constitute a strong local shock effect;

3, the use of large aperture and long focal length:

This is the basic photography technology based on camera principle.

The use of large aperture can clear the foreground and virtual background, with the purpose of highlighting the foreground and expressing the texture of local autumn leaves; The long focal length is to bring the middle scene closer, and the short depth of field can also play the role of clearing the foreground and virtual background. At the same time, using large aperture and long focal length can avoid the obstacles of the same terrain and features, get rid of the limitation of spatial position and give full play to your shooting advantages;

4. Use tripod, large aperture lens and high-speed film;

It is windy in autumn, and pieces of autumn leaves are swaying with the wind, making it difficult to catch. By the stream in the ravine, the lights are always flashing and the contrast is great. In order to stably shoot beautiful instantaneous images, especially in rainy days, the color saturation is high, but the light contrast is large and the overall light brightness is low, so a tripod is needed.

In addition, it is useless to deal with autumn leaves swaying in the wind in the absence of light. Large-aperture lenses, such as 1.4, 2.0 and 2.8mm, will help you to some extent;

In the case of dim light, the high sensitivity of ISO 400 and 800 may be more helpful for you to shoot local scenes, and the characteristics of high sensitivity and coarse particles will not obviously affect the photo quality;

Combining these four experiences and technical methods, you will greatly improve the effect of shooting autumn leaves, and everyone can shoot a satisfactory autumn leaf map.