Guide to digital camera shooting at night

Digital photography itself is an image sensor (CCD/CMOS, etc. ) records the light information taken by the lens, so no matter how dark the scene is, there must be light (not necessarily visible light), otherwise the camera cannot image. The following is a guide to digital camera shooting at night that I have carefully arranged for you. I hope you like it.

Characteristics of digital camera shooting at night: Why do you shoot at night instead of during the day? What is the difference between shooting at night and shooting during the day? What are the advantages of shooting at night? We must first understand the uniqueness and advantages of night shooting, and then we can make good use of its characteristics when taking pictures and create distinctive works.

During the day, air pollution is caused by fog or automobile exhaust, and even in summer, the air is disturbed by heat. For the scenery a little farther away, it often feels a little vague, like a piece of white gauze, especially in the metropolis. The impact of air pollution at night is low, which can be ignored.

Taking pictures during the day is often affected by the weather, and taking pictures in rainy days often needs to consider many issues, such as color temperature and contrast. Night photography is not affected by cloudy days, and rainy days are a good time to take pictures. So, whenever and wherever, as long as you are in the mood and not lazy, you can shoot.

Photography is a subtraction exercise. At night, it is often better for the subject to get rid of what we don't want, so just don't expose it to light.

Because of the long exposure time, during the exposure, we can move a lot of hands and feet calmly, such as local addition and subtraction, using flash to fill the light and so on. And even actively use the light source to create pictures, so the creative space is broader. This is the biggest advantage compared with daytime photography.

Because the background of the scene at night is dark or completely black, it will be easier to use a repeated exposure device or use software to synthesize it later.

Of course, when shooting at night, due to insufficient light, it is not easy to attract attention and it is not so embarrassing; And because you have to use a tripod, unlike being lazy during the day, the photos you take often have fewer vibration and blur problems.

Equipment and equipment for digital camera night photography: Whether it is a digital SLR or a small digital camera, it is best to have manual exposure, otherwise there will be great restrictions when shooting. The metering mode is preferably a local or point metering mode. It should be noted that the power consumption of digital cameras is relatively large when they are exposed for a long time. Unlike previous mechanical shutter cameras, they do not consume any power except metering. Therefore, when the electronic camera is exposed for a long time, it is necessary to prepare extra batteries for emergencies.

Lens: All kinds of focal length lenses can be used, and zoom lenses can be used for special effects. In addition, when there is light on the face, the requirements for lens coating are relatively high, and low-grade lenses are prone to glare or blurred images due to poor extinction of the inner wall of the lens barrel.

Remote control: When using long exposure or B-door, in order to minimize possible jitter, it is best to use cable release or remote control to control the shutter. Of course, if none of these accessories are available, you can also use automatic delayed exposure.

Tripod: Of course, it is necessary, and theoretically, the heavier the better. Don't underestimate the wind at night. If the tripod is too light, it will be exposed to stupid moths flying in the air for a long time. Mishit？ Or is it a little beetle crawling on the ground? Mishit？ And a slight vibration is generated. As for the tripod with multiple weights, please find a balance point according to your physical strength and weather conditions.

Photometry: This means nothing, because how many people can afford to buy some exposure meters? Exposure is not the most difficult problem for digital cameras, because you can check the shooting effect at any time. Shoot first, increase with less exposure, and decrease with more exposure, so it is easy to find a suitable exposure combination.

Manual focusing focusing screen: If the camera allows, it is best to use manual focusing mode for night shooting, so a manual focusing screen with microprism ring or image segmentation device is very helpful, otherwise it will be difficult to focus accurately. Night photography often uses a small aperture to obtain a large depth of field as long as the subject falls into the depth of field.

Hood: Under the principle of not covering the picture, the longer the better. Because there are many light sources around at night, the use of a hood can reduce the unsightly spots on the negative after the light is refracted by the lens.

Flash and flash extension line: TTL is not needed, just know its flash index. Flash is often only used as an auxiliary light source, not as a main light source. In addition, an extension cord is necessary, otherwise the flash is almost useless.

Viewfinder eye patch: Random light enters the camera through the viewfinder, which may affect the work of the photoelectric device of the camera, while night photography is more affected because the photometric subject is dark, so it is necessary to effectively prevent light from entering the viewfinder.

Filter: Except for protective lenses (sky lenses or ultraviolet lenses), filters are rarely used in night photography, and protective lenses are preferably multilayer coated lenses. Other types of filters are used for special effects, such as starlight mirrors, mirrors and various filters. Pay attention to the use of filters for creation; Don't create to use filters.

Other necessary accessories include small flashlights, cleaning appliances, anti-fog supplies, right-angle viewfinder, etc. , completely according to the need to carry. If you have spare batteries, memory cards, digital companions and the like, the more the better.

Set the sensitivity of digital camera.

As mentioned above, in order to get fine images at night, we should try to use low sensitivity. If the camera supports it, we should choose ISO 25, ISO 50 and so on. The lowest sensitivity among some models is ISO 200. At that time, if there is nothing we can do, we should only use ISO 200.

white balance

It is difficult to set an accurate white balance because of the messy light at night. Generally, automatic white balance can be used directly, or daylight white balance can be used to create lighting effects. It is recommended to shoot in RAW format, and the white balance can be adjusted accurately later.

Digital cameras shoot at night and take pictures at night. Because of the great contrast between the light source and the dark part, the relative position of the scene on the screen gives people a more obvious sense of composition. Although there are many principles in composition, balance comes first. The commonly used composition forms are all suitable, such as TIC-tac-toe composition, triangle composition, S-shaped composition, diagonal composition, L-shaped composition and so on. In addition to the prominent theme and proper contrast, the composition of the picture must be stable and connotative. But we should pay attention to one thing: don't learn the principle of composition before taking pictures, but summarize a balanced and stable composition after taking more pictures and trying, and don't be bound by many principles.

Photometry and exposure of digital camera shooting at night For digital photography, exposure is no longer a problem. Whether the exposure of a night photography work is correct or not is a matter of opinion. Some people think that the same work is more colorful because it looks more colorful; Some people think that dark color is better, because it looks more atmospheric, so each has its own advantages. It can be seen that whether the exposure is correct depends entirely on whether the individual has achieved what he wants to express in his heart. Others can only give advice, not decide for him.

Although digital photography also has the problem that reciprocity law fails, it is not necessary to pay attention to this problem because it is rarely converted based on the photometric results of exposure meters. Generally speaking, it is foolproof to take a few more shots when shooting formally, and leave a wide post-processing range by using RAW.

As for the exposure period, many techniques can be used to enhance the characteristics of the work, and these techniques are entirely the innovation or combination of the photographer's imagination. Examples are as follows:

Focusing effect: the effect of causing a light source to produce a point or a circular spot through intentional defocusing.

Lens effect: During exposure, zoom lens can be used to zoom at the same time, resulting in radial effect.

Shutter effect: hold the camera for a long time, or rotate the camera with a tripod during exposure, leaving a motion track.

Multiple exposure: You can overlap images or take the same photo at different times. Make good use of filters.

During exposure, black cardboard is directly used as optical addition and subtraction.

Make good use of flash to fill the light, and add various colors of cellophane to make various colors of light.

The classification of digital camera shooting at night shows that if you use average metering, remember to add one or two exposures, otherwise you will only leave light spots, not afraid of too much exposure, but afraid of too little exposure. Don't have a wide field of vision, or the picture will be too messy.

Think more before shooting, so as not to fall into the routine. Make good use of multiple exposures and light addition and subtraction techniques to avoid excessive contrast. Because it is mostly close-range, the aperture should be as small as possible, up to f 16. Many people and cars interfere for a long time, so I'd rather not shoot.

When night falls, the city will present another artificial style, which is composed of neon lights, street lamps and lights of every household in high-rise buildings. At this time, the objects to be captured by the lens include: the urban landscape under artificial light source and the unique shape and color of the light source itself.

In addition to shooting on the ground, city night scenes can also be shot at high angles, such as overpasses and tall buildings. In photometry, the average photometry in the camera is allowed, and the proportion of light and dark areas on the viewfinder screen determines the exposure compensation. Because shooting artificial building structures at night often only sees lighting modeling, and the building itself is almost invisible. In order to have structure and lighting at the same time, you can repeatedly expose the same object at different times: that is, once at dusk when the structure is still visible, and once at night when the camera is turned on, so you can have both. Remember that the exposure for the first exposure is about two steps less than usual. Similarly, this method can be used at dawn.

When shooting fireworks, you should use long exposure, and there should not be too many fireworks on the same film. If the picture contains ground scenery, it may be necessary to cooperate with addition and subtraction to make the ground scenery appear. Generally speaking, fireworks photos are often combined with other landscape photos as material in the later stage to add features. Of course, when composing music, you should arrange it in advance. As for the aperture, if ISO 100 is used, f 1 1 is used for short distance (some high-brightness fireworks need f 16), and f8 or f5.6 is used for medium and long distance.

This refers to the world without direct artificial light, so there are two kinds of light sources: one is moonlight, and the other may be artificial light reflected by distant clouds. Generally, the proportion of scattered light is heavy and the picture is evenly distributed. However, due to the weak light, it is often impossible to measure the light directly, even if there is a big error in the measurement. So exposure value can only rely on experience and shooting to surround the exposure. My suggestion is that under clear and full moon conditions, for ISO 100, the starting point is the aperture f4, 20 to 30 minutes. Need to be reminded that although it is night, the sky is not completely black, and it is often the brightest part of the picture.

In addition, the fog in the wild is dignified, so we should pay attention to heat preservation, so that the camera temperature can be gradually reconciled with the outside world to avoid condensation of water vapor in the lens. The best shooting time is before dawn.

Rain or after rain is a rare opportunity to shoot night scenes. In addition to the fresh air, the reflection on the ground can also enhance the interest. For example, the reflection of neon lights on the concrete floor is colorful and full of imagination. Of course, rain gear must be prepared, raincoats, umbrellas, plastic bags and dry towels are indispensable, and the camera must be wrapped in transparent plastic bags, and then a hole is opened at the lens to shoot. Since the most dangerous enemy of digital cameras is humidity, you should be careful when shooting in rainy days.

Partial photometry is best used for indoor low-light photography and photometry. In order to show the atmosphere, sometimes you don't have to expose it? Is that correct? . If the flash is used properly, it can make the theme more explanatory. Pay more attention to the color temperature of the light source. If the white balance is set to automatic or daylight, incandescent lamps will be yellow, fluorescent lamps will be green, sodium vapor lamps will be dark yellow, and mercury lamps will be blue-green. If possible, it is best to use RAW format, which can be adjusted accurately in the future.

It is almost impossible to shoot the star tracks with an unmodified digital camera. If you are an astrophotography enthusiast, you'd better transform your camera and strengthen the cooling device for CCD/CMOS, otherwise the imaging noise will drown all the stars.

If you want to preserve the details of the moon, the exposure varies greatly with the position and orientation of the moon. When the full moon is in the middle of the sky, the aperture f8-f 1 1 and 1/250 seconds can be obtained for the sensitivity of ISO 100. However, when it just rises or is about to fall, the shutter may be lowered to115 seconds; In addition, the exposure of the string moon must also be increased. Remember that the shutter speed should not be too slow, or the movement of the moon will destroy the definition.