How to shoot highlights compared with photos?

Lead: There are several difficulties in taking photos, among which controlling exposure is a very important one. The control of exposure will directly affect the style and feeling of photos. And there is a situation where it is difficult to decide how to control the exposure, that is, the shooting of highlights than scenes. When the brightness difference between the bright part and the dark part is far away, it is necessary to make a choice in the control of exposure.

How to shoot highlights compared with photos The most difficult exposure problem is how to shoot highlights compared with photos.

We know that taking photos is to control the brightness of photos by controlling the brightness entering the camera, which is what we often call exposure control. Exposure can be controlled by adjusting aperture and shutter ISO. What we can control is the amount of light entering the camera, but what we can't control is the proportion of light in the shooting environment. However, the sensor of digital camera is limited by the physical photosensitive performance, and there is often a photosensitive range that accepts the amount of light, and the excess part cannot be recorded. We call this situation overflow.

The light sensing range of the sensor is called tolerance, and the range from all black to all white is regarded as the brightness range. Whether it is a film camera or a digital camera, it can only record a part, and it can record the exposure difference from the darkest to the brightest, which is what we often call tolerance. Therefore, the tolerance determines how much detail is recorded in the highlight ratio environment.

What people see is a scene with high light ratio, unless they see a scene with high exposure difference to the sun. Generally speaking, the background of the picture people see is blue sky and white clouds, and the foreground is very bright backlight. Shooting with a camera will not have this effect. This is an image recorded by the brain and synthesized in the brain when we look at objects with different brightness. In fact, the ability of human eyes to feel light is close to that of camera sensors, and the sensitive range is narrow, and only a part of things within the brightness range can be recorded. Camera shooting is a true reflection of light perception, which is different from what human eyes see, so it is necessary to solve the problem of how to shoot in a scene with high light ratio.

We can't change the physical characteristics of the camera, we can only change some ways and means when taking pictures. Shooting scenes with high light ratio can be said to be one of the most difficult situations in camera exposure control.

1, dark fill light

In order to improve the tolerance of photos, we can fill the dark parts with light. In this way, because we have used other means to improve the tolerance, the shooting effect after filling the light will be somewhat unnatural, which requires us not to be too casual when filling the light.

Generally speaking, there are two ways to fill light: auxiliary light and active light. Auxiliary fill light is to adjust the brightness of the picture by using the light reflected by the reflector or blackboard. Because this method does not involve artificial light, the effect of supplementary light is often more natural. We use silver reflector, white reflector and gold reflector to achieve different color temperature fill light. Generally speaking, the white reflector controls the color temperature of photos better. Because the color temperature of the spotlight will not be adjusted, the silver and gold reflectors will adjust the cold tone or warm tone, which will produce a strange feeling.

Flash is a way to actively fill the light, which can supplement the light of artificial light source for the dark part. The intensity of the flash can be adjusted, and the general flash is more than enough for small and medium-sized flash. Flash photography is a means to greatly improve the loss of image details caused by highlights relative to photos. But if you fill the light directly with a flash, the photo will have an unnatural feeling. At this time, all kinds of auxiliary flash accessories are needed to cooperate.

The color temperature of the flash light source is too cold. When used in sunlight or indoor dim light, the difference of color temperature will be obviously felt. At this time, the color film of the flash can be used to compensate the color temperature difference, and the color temperature of the flash can be adjusted to be close to the ambient light, which can make the photo more natural.

2. Record with original documents

It is a good thing that more and more cameras support RAW format recording. RAW format is the original record of image data, which provides a good foundation for post-processing of photos. Because the tolerance of RAW format is higher, the original indistinguishable light and dark details can be restored by post-adjustment.

Original photo with serious underexposure.

Adjust the exposure image later.

When shooting a high-light scene, there is always one aspect of the light and dark part that cannot be taken into account. It can be recorded in RAW format and restored in the middle and late stages of the computer. Because RAW format files are more operable for dark parts, we suggest that when shooting highlights instead of scenes, we should take the principle of protecting the details of bright parts and underexpose the photos appropriately. The details lost in the dark part are recovered by post-processing.

3. Use the dynamic range function on the camera.

Cameras usually have a dynamic range setting option to expand the tolerance and keep more highlights than the details of the scene. When this function is turned on, compared with the photos taken in the closed state, it can be found that the dark part is highlighted and the details of the bright part will also appear. The light and shade of the picture become more harmonious.

For the camera, this function is to improve the tolerance through the software processing inside the camera. So it has an impact on the picture quality. This function of improving dynamic range will be more practical in cameras with RAW format recording, such as non-reflex and SLR cameras.

After turning on this function, the performance of tolerance will be improved a lot, and the tolerance will also be improved when taking pictures. It is also the easiest way to improve the highlight ratio of scene shooting.

Step 4 shoot with HDR function

At present, HDR functions are becoming more and more popular, from SLR cameras to mobile phones. HDR function is one of the means to solve the problem of high light ratio photos. By continuously shooting multiple photos of the same scene with different exposures, the details of different photos are extracted, and the details of different light ratios in the photos are complete.

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Different from the camera's high dynamic range function, the essence of HDR function is to superimpose multiple photos instead of simply adjusting them in the same photo file. Therefore, the photos taken by HDR function can not only achieve the perfect shooting of high-light ratio scenes, but also ensure the image quality. It is a function that it is better to shoot highlights than landscapes.

However, the HDR function is also flawed, because multiple photos need to be taken continuously for synthesis, so the position of the photo content cannot be changed, that is to say, there can be no position movement when shooting, so it is inevitable to shoot with a tripod, which is more troublesome to use. In addition, there can be no moving objects in the photo, otherwise the synthesis effect will be poor after using HDR function.

5, rational use of high light ratio

The scene with high light ratio cannot be changed due to environmental restrictions. Instead of trying to change the contrast of this amount of light, it is better to make reasonable use of the characteristics of high light ratio to take photos that meet the needs of the scene.

When shooting in backlight, you can selectively overexpose the background or underexpose the foreground by adjusting the exposure. The former can obtain bright backlight photos, while the latter can realize silhouette photos. Although there are some trade-offs in details, the final effect is more artistic.

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When taking photos in the backlight, the outline of the subject will be illuminated, and the subject will be outlined with beautiful Phnom Penh. If you want to keep the foreground, you can get a backlit photo by increasing the exposure appropriately. At this point, the foreground becomes transparent and the outline is separated from the background. The overexposure of the background also highlights the overall dreaminess.

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When we reduce the exposure, the foreground becomes completely black, thus forming a silhouette that is different from the background. In the same shooting environment, different shooting effects can be obtained, which is the unique shooting feature of high-light scenes. As long as you don't do special treatment, you can change from a detailed photo to a meaningful silhouette photo.

Summary:

The highlight ratio is the most difficult link for us to control the exposure when learning photography. Due to the limitation of camera hardware, we can't have the best of both worlds. We need to grasp and handle the final style of photos, determine the final style of photos through exposure control, and use various accessories to assist. What the final effect is, more attempts are needed to discover the mystery.