How to shoot the camera after it snows?

How to shoot the snow scene in winter?

Today we will discuss how to take pictures in snowy winter. Winter shooting is still full of technical problems and plot problems, and we will try to solve these problems today.

First, the camera maintenance

Charge the spare battery.

In cold weather, the battery life of the camera will soon run out. To prevent the shooting from ending immediately after it starts, please charge the spare battery. In addition, please store the battery as close to your body as possible, for example, in the inner pocket of your jacket. Even if the battery is discharged in the cold for the next hour, it may be enough to extend the service life.

Don't turn on the camera when you enter the room from the outside.

The sharp change of temperature is harmful to photographic equipment. Don't turn on the camera for a few hours after you get home, please warm it up. Please wrap the camera (and other equipment) in a sealed plastic bag to prevent condensation before entering a warm room.

Use protective cover and ultraviolet filter.

In order to protect the camera from snow and humid air, please use special brand protective covers and carry plastic bags with batteries, flashlights and other moisture-sensitive equipment. The cheap substitute of brand packaging box is ordinary plastic wrap that can wrap the camera. Ultraviolet filters are used to protect lenses.

Don't forget to wear warm clothes

Walking with a camera is easier to freeze than shopping in the store. Therefore, you need to dress warmly and won't go home for the next few hours. It is recommended to even bring spare gloves and warm shoes.

Second, shooting options

Exposure error

Snow usually occupies almost the whole picture area, which will mislead the built-in photoreceptor. This causes the snow in the photo to be gray instead of white. So, if you like shooting in automatic and semi-automatic modes, please increase the exposure compensation (+1, +2) to prevent the photos from darkening.

In order to accurately determine the correct exposure compensation (depending on the camera, it can be+1 or +2), please evaluate the histogram of the photo. If there is a lot of snow in the frame, the chart should be on the right side of the histogram field:

Manual shooting

After a long exposure, the falling snowflakes in the photo will become blurred and look like stripes, which can be used to achieve creative effects. When the shutter speed exceeds 1 s, depending on the background and the time of day, the stripes will be very long or there will be no snow at all.

In order to make the snowflake round and not fuzzy, it is best to choose the shutter speed of 1/250 seconds. If it snows fast or it is windy outside, the shutter speed should not exceed 1/500. It also allows you to take it out of your hand in bad weather without carrying a tripod.

White balance correction

White balance is another problem when shooting in a snowy environment. In auto white balance mode, the photo may be blue. To avoid this, set the white balance to cloudy or shaded. In addition, please be sure to shoot RAW for post-processing.

Lens selection

The focal length greatly affects the existence of winter in the photo. Snowflakes are more obvious when using telephoto lenses:

When shooting with a wide-angle lens, because the photographer needs to be close to the subject, the snow will be less obvious and the distance between the camera and the scene will be reduced.

So it's best to shoot the same story with different focal lengths, and then choose the favorite picture. And don't forget to shoot the same picture many times-heavy snow will turn off the required composition elements.

Zoom lens is most suitable for shooting in snowy days, and there is no need to replace optical elements in the wild. No amateur photographer would risk changing the lens under heavy snow, and it's no use finding a room-it may condense when the temperature changes sharply.

Three. Composition and plot

For landscape photographers, snowfall is a huge advantage. It hides all the distracting details, and falling snowflakes cover up the complex background or make it less noticeable. Snow can highlight objects in the foreground, although they are usually hidden in other objects or have no contrast.

During the snowfall, the photos are richer than the usual cloudy weather, because the snow will form a tonal perspective from the dark flowers in the foreground to the light colors in the background. Wet snow also has special properties-it makes colors more vivid and emphasizes stones and rocks, trunks.

In sunny weather, it is best to shoot a few hours before sunrise, when the trees are covered with snow crystals. When the sun rises higher, they will melt even in cold weather. In addition, in the morning and before sunset, when the sun is low, the light is softer, and it will not produce contrast shadows, and it will also produce interesting orange-pink light on the snow.

Photo framing

If the land is completely covered with snow, at first glance, the plot may seem monotonous. In order to diversify it, interesting objects, animals, people and tree trunks are all included in the frame.

All kinds of rhythms (repetitive objects, sequences and perspectives) and shadows can be used for shooting.

If there is nothing interesting in the background, please shoot as wide as possible and pay attention to objects and elements that may peep from under the snow.

Finally, if there is nothing to attract the audience's attention, try to shoot the story from a lower angle.

light

Another way to diversify graphics is to find reflections. It can be an object reflected in a frozen pond or a snow surface shining in the sun. Ice can reflect sunlight well.

figure

It would be better if the scenery can give people a brand-new image. You don't need to take close-ups of people, just include a small person in the plot, and the photos will become more interesting.

Equally interesting are the traces of people (not just people) in the snow.

abstract

Of course, all the techniques are good, but in the process of shooting, you must not forget your creative potential, find a unique rhythm and scenery that others don't have, and don't repeat what has been published on the spot. This may be the main part of any photo, not only in winter.

Shooting snowflakes flying all over the sky with a SLR, according to the photography experience, we should pay attention to the following points:

1, the shutter speed cannot be fast. The camera adopts shutter priority mode, and the exposure time can be determined as1/60s-1100s, and then it can be adjusted appropriately according to the actual shooting effect and your own needs. At about1100 seconds, the snowflake is still in the shape of a point, while at 1/60 seconds, the nearby snowflake has become a short segment.

2. The background should be dark. Snowflakes are white, so they should stand out with a dark background. If the background is bright, you can't see the flying snowflakes.

3. The shooting range should not be too big. This is not the same as shooting a snow scene. The contrast between the size of snowflakes and the size of surrounding scenery is certain. The shooting range is large, and the proportion of snowflakes is very small. You can only see the snow scene, but you can't see the flying snowflakes. I have taken some large-scale photos. I can see the flying snowflakes when I zoom in, but I can't see the snowflakes when I zoom out on the computer screen. If you cut off a part to enlarge it, you might as well shoot a small area directly to make it clearer.

Step 4 focus. There must be nearby snowflakes within the depth of field. With autofocus, the focus should be on the nearby scenery. If there is no suitable close-up view, it is easy to focus on the distant scenery. At this time, you can switch to manual focusing, and you can clearly see the snowflakes flying nearby from the viewfinder. The reason for shooting nearby snowflakes is "near big and far small", and only nearby snowflakes can be bigger. Moreover, the nearby snowflakes have a large angular velocity, which makes it easier to form a sense of flying.

5, to shoot flying snowflakes, it is easy to shoot when the snow is heavy. But in snowy days, there is only diffuse light, which is easy to be dull. When shooting, you can choose some close-ups of snow and people wearing bright clothes to enhance the atmosphere.

6. The last trick is to pay attention to protect photographic equipment from getting wet when shooting in snowy days.

How to maintain SLR:

1. Many people like to take sunscreen and mosquito repellent when shooting outdoors to avoid sun exposure and mosquito bites. But these two things, for your camera, will cause damage; Because sunscreen is oily, mosquito repellent contains chemicals, which will cause irreparable damage to sensitive parts such as camera lenses and sensors.

So when shooting outdoors, be sure to wash your hands that have been exposed to sunscreen and mosquito repellent with clear water in time, so as to ensure that your camera will not be damaged by them.

One more thing, please don't put the camera in a bag with sunscreen and mosquito repellent. If this kind of thing leaks out, the life of your camera will be over soon. Therefore, please prepare a sealed bag to seal the liquid substance.

2. Some parts of the digital camera are movable. If sand enters the camera, it will quickly get stuck in the camera or scratch many parts.

Therefore, where there is sand, you must take good care of your camera; You can cover the camera with a sealed bag. Remember to turn off the camera and keep the clothes free of sand.

Of course, the above measures are far from enough to protect the camera in a sandy environment. You must look around to see if anyone is playing football, throwing a frisbee, or there is a strong wind. If so, you should consider not taking out your camera to use.

In addition to sand, dust is also a great weapon to destroy the camera. Dust does not scratch the internal parts of the camera like sand, which makes the SLR camera unable to work. It generally just pollutes your lens and image sensor, making it impossible for you to take high-quality photos.

Water can do harm to your camera in various ways, and the most serious harm is that it can end the life of the camera in an instant. So when using the camera, be sure to observe the surrounding environment and keep the camera away from the water.

Moisture can also damage the camera. Generally, when the camera is wet outside, when you move it from one temperature to another, it will produce moisture. One solution is to put the camera in a plastic bag when you move from one temperature to another. In fact, this solution is not practical. Never put your camera in a plastic bag.

When used in humid environment, in order to avoid the damage of humidity to the camera, you can only try to keep the camera warm and wipe it regularly.

How to take photos of snow scenes?

In daily study, work or life, many people have written and taken photos. Taking snow scenes is a hobby of many photographers, so how to take snow scenes? Below I sorted out the skills of shooting snow scenes for your reference!

Accurate time

Don't think that the first keyword we put forward is nonsense. Do you take it for granted that the correct time to shoot is when it snows? At this time, you need to learn to think with the photographer's thinking: when will the whole snowy day be conducive to the shooting light?

When snow covers the earth, the cover will reflect light from many angles after being irradiated by the sun, so we should avoid the strong light of the sun and choose around sunrise or evening in sunny morning, when scattered light can better capture the texture and level of snow.

Practical equipment

The environment temperature for shooting snow scenes is low, so I suggest you consider bringing a professional and reliable SLR. In the choice of lens for shooting landscape works, telephoto and wide angle are the main methods. In addition, you often need to carry tripods, polarizers, hoods and other equipment.

The temperature should be below zero.

Below "zero", this is the best temperature for taking close-ups of snowflake crystals. It's time for you to get ready and look for these little things in the dead of winter in the north. We can find a lot of information about the formation of snowflake crystals from Baidu, sogou and other search engines. I won't explain the reasons in detail here. You just need to remember that shooting crystals requires a cold environment with no wind, high water vapor and a temperature below zero.

White balance of Snow Scene

Professional photographers will habitually check the white balance settings of the camera before shooting snow scenes. If your camera is still set to normal "automatic white balance" at this time, then you are miscalculated! The picture you get in this mode will be "full of blues"!

If your camera doesn't have the function of manual white balance setting, or you can't set it skillfully manually, then you can directly choose the automatic white balance mode of "snow scene/cloudy day" at this time; If you are skilled in using your own camera, you can take a custom white balance picture of pure white snow according to different camera setting modes, so as to set the most correct white balance in your environment.

Fractional photometry

There are often pictures of "snow is white" when shooting? Don't worry, there is nothing wrong with your camera. The problem is that the "automatic exposure mode" it uses doesn't work! In this Gao Fancha scene, in order to reflect the dark part and the bright part, we can measure the light separately, and then combine them to get a more accurate exposure value.

"background" contrast

When we shoot in snowy days, you will find that the foreground and background are white. At this time, in order to reflect the level of the picture, it is often necessary to add some jumping colors in the foreground or background to form a contrast.

Backlight and side backlight

When shooting, you can boldly use some backlights and side backlights to describe the scenery. Even if you shoot the distant view of the sky and the mountains on the ground, they can create a far-reaching atmosphere.

Avoid condensation

Photographic equipment is the darling of photographers. Because of the low temperature of snow shooting, when we take the camera from a cold place to a warmer place, it is easy to get wet condensation, which will temporarily disable the camera and make it impossible to shoot, so we should try our best to avoid this situation.

Give up the flash

When shooting snowflake crystal, we need to give up the method of turning on the flash to make the crystal more sensitive and textured, so as to prevent the snowflake from melting because the flash is too close to the tiny crystal.

Suitable prospect

In snow shooting, the choice of foreground is very important for photographers to create an atmosphere. Because of the particularity that snow scene is difficult to be layered, using branches hung with ice or roads, flowers and buildings covered with thick snow 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. You can also make a shape border like an example to make the scene more emotional and not make the viewer bored because of the snow.

The emergence of Xue Huadian

When we shoot snowflakes flying all over the sky, when the snowflakes are close to the lens and the focus area we choose is in the background area far behind the snowflakes, then you will take a photo of a Zhang Xuehua cluster.

Watch out for steam.

Have you found that when shooting with viewfinder in cold weather, the water vapor exhaled by yourself sometimes makes the camera lens hazy? So you'd better take a lens cloth with you and clean the camera at any time. Of course, you'd better wear a mask when shooting!

Skillful use of polarizer

Make the sky bluer and the white clouds whiter? That's right! It is best to take this good companion-polarizer when shooting snow scenes. The exposure compensation after adding polarizer needs to be reduced by 1/4 to 1/3 compared with that before adding polarizer.

Look at snowflakes under a microscope.

British scientist Hooke first saw the appearance of snowflake crystals under the microscope. And these snowflake crystals photographed by microscope have become rare works of art in the world. If we have a microscope with a magnification of100000 times, we can also try to shoot crystals with a camera.

Shadows create a sense of hierarchy.

Although winter feels soft but lacks details, in order to break the dullness, shadows can be used to balance the light and shade of white pictures, and shadow modeling can also add three-dimensional sense to the scene.

Facial exposure

(1) Choose a time when the light is not too strong, so that the face and background of the subject are exposed moderately in sunlight;

(2) performing peripheral exposure;

(3) Under the strong light condition, use the backlight to shoot, and use the supplementary light in the dark.

Take a small picture.

When everyone is busy shooting the vast snow scene, we might as well focus on the small scene in front of us. Lovely snowman, ice crystals on the window and chairs covered with snow are all excellent themes in winter.

HDR synthesis

When you want to shoot the colorful light and shadow of the sunset through the white forest under strong backlight, but you always can't grasp the dark details in the shadow, and the bright details near the sun in the sky can be fully reflected, HDR synthesis will be the best way to solve this problem.

We only need to make three exposures in this light: insufficient, normal and excessive, and then we only need to combine these three exposures to get a beautiful sunset snow scene with vivid details!

Shutter selection

When there are flying snowflakes in the shooting picture, the shutter speed can be set below 1/60s to condense the snowflakes into lines, while it can be set between 1/80s and1/20s to record the process of flying snowflakes. If there is a walking figure in the picture, the above shutter speed can also make the figure not blurred.

How to use the camera in snowy days?

The skills to get better results with a camera in snowy days can be started from the following aspects:

Equipment selection. The ambient temperature for shooting snow scenes is relatively low, so I suggest you consider taking a professional and reliable SLR. In the choice of lens for shooting landscape works, telephoto and wide angle are the main methods. In addition, you often need to carry tripods, polarizers, hoods and other equipment.

Equipment protection. Cold weather must be a severe challenge for people and cameras. The first is temperature, people are afraid of cold, and machines are also afraid of cold. When shooting, you should consciously protect the camera with your hands to prevent snow from entering the fuselage. You can also prepare an anti-freezing and warm cover for the camera and put on a thick cotton-padded coat for the camera. In addition, the camera has a certain working temperature, so does the battery. In order to keep warm, you can put some camera battery packs in warm pockets and then connect them with cameras through wires. This will not only keep the battery warm, but also affect the shooting. If you think this is troublesome, or the camera can't do it, then you can use the most primitive method, which is to preheat the battery in advance.

Don't think the camera is safe when you come back. Remember not to start taking pictures immediately when you return from a cold place to a warm place. Cameras, like people, need to adapt to the new environment. If you take it out directly, the lens will be covered with water vapor. Wait a few minutes for the camera to warm up before taking pictures. In addition, when shooting with viewfinder in cold weather, the water vapor exhaled by yourself sometimes makes the camera lens hazy, so don't be lazy, take a mask to shoot, carry lens cloth with you and clean the camera at any time.

Snow exposure skills. Snow exposure is different from conventional exposure. The reflected light of snow will be very strong in clear sunshine, so it is difficult to set up exposure value to shoot the scene. The standard photometry method of restoring 18% gray level will make the white snow surface in the picture gray, which will bring some difficulties to shooting.

So at this time, it is necessary to adjust the exposure or use the backlight correction function to compensate the light quantity of the subject to achieve the ideal shooting effect. When shooting, you need to set the gain of the machine higher and choose a darker contrast to get good results.

In order to show the crystal-clear temperament of the picture, it is necessary to sidelight the snow surface based on the snow, and use spot metering to sidelight the snow surface. On this basis, the exposure value 1.5 is increased to 2, and the texture details of the snow surface are preserved while the snow surface is bright and white. Of course, if you have the conditions, you can buy some filters to shoot, so as to achieve the best results.

Setting skills of snow white balance. The automatic white balance of digital cameras is generally set at about 5600K to adapt to shooting in most light environments, but for light that is too dark or too bright and complicated, the automatic white balance of digital cameras often fails. Snow scene belongs to the category of "too bright". Therefore, it is suggested that you can try to control the white balance manually when shooting snow scenes, and try to adjust the white balance of the camera to the position of 8000 k-10000 k.

Scene shooting skills. Since it is snowy, snow scenery is naturally the best choice. Whether it is the glittering and translucent snow falling on the shoulders or the heavy snow flying all over the sky, it gives people an inviolable sense of holiness. If you have already filmed a foggy scene in autumn, you might as well try again in winter. The looming smog in the snow-capped mountains is completely different from that in the clear autumn.