What problems should be paid attention to when shooting at night with a camera?

With the popularity of DV, more and more ordinary families have become families with digital cameras, and DV has also become a "sharp weapon" to record family life. However, some friends who like to shoot night scenes find that the night shooting effect of domestic digital cameras is really a headache, especially in recent years, manufacturers have spared no effort to reduce the size of CCD image sensors in order to save costs and reduce the price of machines. At present, the CCD size of domestic digital cameras has been reduced from 1/4 inches to 1/6 inches, which will have a certain impact on the shooting effect. From the actual shooting effect, the machine of 1/4 inch CCD image sensor is better than the digital camera of 1/6 inch CCD image sensor, and the difference is not obvious in normal light, but it will be obvious in dark light conditions, such as indoors and at night, and the color and clarity of the picture can be seen to be different.

As we all know, CCD image sensor is the key part of digital camera. The size of CCD image sensor actually refers to the area of photosensitive device. The larger the area of CCD image sensor, the more photons it captures, and the better the photosensitive performance. Its size directly affects the shooting quality of digital cameras. Although it is said that in order to cooperate with the small-size CCD image sensor, manufacturers have equipped cameras with some performances to improve the low-light performance, such as LED camera lights and noise reduction circuits. Overall, it is still worse than it used.

Then, since manufacturers have "collectively shrunk" the size of CCD image sensors, as ordinary consumers, there is no choice. Can you only silently endure the unsatisfactory night scene shooting effect brought by the small CCD? Of course not. Although we can't change the size of CCD image sensor, we can improve the night scene shooting effect by some means. Today, let's learn what methods can help us significantly improve the night scene shooting effect!

First, use a tripod.

Tripod is an important tool in photography, which can play a stable role in many occasions and let you take a clear picture. Home computers are generally hand-held digital cameras, which are not as stable as shoulder-mounted digital cameras, so the picture will shake because of unstable hand-holding, especially in the case of dim light and night shooting, the role of tripod is more obvious.

It is very necessary to equip a digital camera with a tripod if you want it to shoot a better effect and a stable picture at night, especially when shooting with optical zoom. Especially for home digital cameras, when shooting a large zoom at night, even if the electronic stabilizer is turned on, the hand-held effect is still not as good as that of a tripod. At present, there are many tripods on the market, with prices ranging from tens to thousands. We'd better choose one with a three-way tripod, so that you can make fine adjustments when composing music, such as Midas PT26N tripod. Of course, if you don't have enough money, the domestic Weifeng 330A aluminum tripod is an economical and high-quality tripod. There is a three-dimensional tripod, which works well in practice and is suitable for carrying when shooting at night.

Second, be good at using manual focusing function.

Auto-focus is a very practical function of digital cameras, which is suitable for beginners. However, many domestic digital cameras will have the phenomenon that autofocus can't work normally when shooting night scenes, which leads to blurred night scenes. At this time, you can switch to manual focusing and check the focusing effect with LCD screen, so as to choose the appropriate focal length, which can make your night scene clearer and get more accurate shooting results than autofocus.

Maybe many friends seldom use the manual focusing function. First, simply press the "focus key", and then you can see the "hand" on the LCD screen, indicating that you can focus manually. At this time, press the zoom switch to make DV in the telephoto state (W), because after adjusting the image in the telephoto state, the image can be clear at other focal lengths. Then aim the subject at the center of the picture, and adjust the sharpness to the best. Then use the locking function to lock the focal length at a fixed position, and then re-compose, return to the original position, and adjust the two focus buttons respectively to make the subject clear.

Third, try to avoid moving photography.

As we all know, when shooting at night, if you move frequently, the shot image will generally be blurred or even frequently dropped. Therefore, when shooting at night, we should try to avoid moving, fix the camera in a stable position, and avoid frequent use of zoom, and shoot night scenes in a relatively fixed focal length range, so that the image effect is better.

Fourth, the rational use of range hoods.

Sometimes it's best to shoot at night with a hood ... what? Are you kidding? Shooting at night, poor light, need to use a hood? That's right. Let's see what a hood is. The hood is a common photographic accessory that covers the camera lens. It is made of metal, hard plastic, soft rubber and other materials. Its functions are as follows: when shooting with backlight, side light or flash, it can prevent non-imaging light from entering and avoid fogging; When shooting in front light and side light, the scattered light around can be avoided from entering the lens; In light photography or night photography, it can avoid the surrounding interference light from entering the lens. Ha ha, see? We use its "no light interference" feature to serve night shooting.

At night, there are often many light sources in the surrounding environment, so using a hood can reduce the light spots produced on the CCD image sensor after the light is refracted by the lens, which can better represent the subject, reduce the interference of stray light on the subject, and make the picture taken at night relatively pure. Interested friends may wish to give it a try!

Fifth, buy external photographic lights

At present, although some models of digital cameras in the market have built-in LED photography lights, such as Panasonic GS28 and Canon MVX350i, the effective lighting range of the built-in photography lights is usually only about 1.5 meters, and the performance of the LED itself is limited, which is not helpful to the photography effect at night, far less than that of the external photography lights. So, if you want to use an external light source,

Generally speaking, external photographic lights can be divided into external photographic lights connected to the hot boots of digital cameras and independent external photographic lights. External photographic light does not take up much space and is easy to carry, which is a good choice for ordinary users. Although the external photographic lamp is slightly larger, the effect is really very good, and it is also the best choice for friends with abundant funds. Ordinary household users can buy a photographic lamp like Sony HVL-S3D: the power is about 3W, which is suitable for Sony digital cameras. At present, the retail price in the domestic market is around 300 yuan, which is not expensive, but the effect is not bad! However, it should be noted that some photographic lights consume a lot of electricity, so don't turn on the lights all the time when shooting at night, just turn on the lights when shooting officially:)

Sixth, pay attention to the adjustment of white balance

Friends who are familiar with digital cameras know that the color of the object will change due to the color of the projected light, and photos taken under different light conditions will have different color temperatures. For example, a photo taken in tungsten lamp (light bulb) lighting environment may be yellow. Generally speaking, CCD can't automatically correct the change of light like human eyes, so we should pay attention to the adjustment of white balance, especially when shooting at night.

Choosing different white balance will directly affect the tone and artistic conception of the film. Generally speaking, don't choose automatic white balance, which will affect the inherent color of light and make it lose its unique color temperature feeling. You can choose "night scene" white balance mode, but it is best to choose manual white balance adjustment, because automatic white balance enables digital cameras to automatically correct white balance within a certain color temperature range, but the color temperature range that it can automatically correct is between 2500 K and 7000 K, which is beyond this range. The camera will not be able to automatically correct the color distortion of the pictures taken. At this time, you should use the manual white balance function to correct the white balance, which will make your film color reproduction very real and the night scene effect most natural.

Seven, choose the camera's own special shooting mode.

How to shoot without reaching out at night? At this time, we don't need to adjust the white balance, focusing and other functions at all, because ... from the performance of the current home digital camera, the tone is also white! ) Ha ha, we might as well use the special shooting mode built into the camera to shoot. Take Sony's digital camera as an example, it provides infrared night shooting function and color slow shutter two night shooting modes. Turn on the infrared night shooting function, and the LCD screen will display green. At this time, you can shoot even in a dark environment, such as shooting animals at night. If you buy a high-end Sony DV with "slow shutter" and "infrared night shooting function", the shooting effect will be better. Although the image is a bit blurred, it is brighter and farther than shooting only with infrared night shooting function.

If you use Panasonic, Canon or JVC cameras, you can also use their built-in night shooting function to shoot in a completely black environment. Although the effect is worse, it is better than manual adjustment (note that this situation is limited to shooting in all-black environment).

Eight, turn on the anti-shake function

Some friends like to turn off the anti-shake function of digital cameras, thinking that turning on the anti-shake function will make the captured images feel unnatural and affect the clarity, and only after turning it off will they feel "original". However, I still suggest that you turn on the anti-shake function of the digital camera when shooting the night scene, which can effectively reduce the jitter and tail loss of the image and make the night scene clear and stable!

Nine, cleverly choose the scenery

Although night shooting is a "dark killer" for home digital cameras, some unnecessary or even destructive scenes are covered by darkness because of darkness. Appropriate lighting can highlight the main body or main part of the scene and give people a vivid impression. Therefore, when shooting at night, we must pay attention to choosing the right shooting angle, cleverly choosing the scene and highlighting the subject as much as possible, so as to turn the disadvantage into an advantage and make your night shooting achieve unexpected results!

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Night scene is an inevitable shooting environment, such as bonfire party, candlelight birthday dinner and so on. If you can't master the night shooting skills well, you may unfortunately miss many wonderful pictures. I simply said some problems that need to be paid attention to when shooting with digital cameras at night. I hope it can help all the friends who are beginners in shooting, and I hope that everyone's shooting technology will become more and more mature and the night image will become more and more dazzling!

Some people may think it is impossible to shoot in low light or after dark. But many times, lack of light can make you create an artistic scene that seems to be immersed in virtual light. Here are six tips and two notes about shooting at night.

Tip 1: Use the wide-angle lens base. It is best to shoot in low light with the shorter end of the lens. Depth of field (that is, the number (or depth) of clear shots and real lens fragments are better than wide-angle focal length; When you push the lens, especially when the light is dim, it is difficult to completely concentrate the light on the object you are shooting. It's best to keep the width and get closer to your camera. You can save 2 or 3 f pauses to get more, clearer and sharper images.

Tip 2: Avoid moving. Similarly, movement can be avoided. When you increase the focal length by pushing the lens, you actually greatly reduce the amount of light entering the camera. Instead of pushing the lens forward, keep a wide focal length and push your camera closer to the object.

Tip 3: focus manually. The autofocus lens is prone to make mistakes when shooting in the dark, so your camera's autofocus function is invalid and you can only rely on manual focusing. You usually push the lens to find the focus on the object, and then pull the lens to the angle you want (in this case, assuming the widest angular focal length is possible) to start your shooting.

Tip 4: Create a light pool. It may be difficult to brighten all the night scenes, but we don't need it. You don't have to brighten the whole scene, but you can concentrate the light in a small area and get a good shooting effect. This dramatic technology can provide your subject with a special environment and let it freely enter and leave this environment; Moreover, larger shooting can be arranged to provide a strategic area for shooting and line-to-line transmission. When creating a light pool, please pay attention to the contrast between bright and dark areas, and use this extra contrast to improve your shooting quality. Be careful not to drown any light around the shooting range, but try to make the level of the light pool you create adapt to the general level of other light areas. In this way, you can not only highlight the photographed object, but also make the background visible.

A prominent main light, perhaps without auxiliary light or Beijing silhouette light, will create a very dramatic shooting, but it can create a lot of contrast. Adding diffusion effect to your light pool will diffuse the light pool to a certain extent, but it will reduce the contrast and you will have more opportunities to match the surrounding light level. You may also want to reflect light.

In some cases, you may want to give up the background completely and set your photo wider than the light pool so that its edges blend into the black background.

Tip 5: Match the surrounding resources. Gel is a wonderful way to make your light have a special property and make it more in line with the environment and feeling you want to create. Whether you want to simulate the ice blue pool of street lamps, the warm orange light in the window, or the bright white light in front of the car, you can achieve this effect by mixing gels.

Tip 6: Ontology. When shooting in low light, your picture quality may not be as perfect as you want, but please remember that the improvement of dramatic effect far exceeds the loss of quality. Moreover, the shooting time and theme are the most important, and the recording quality and actual video can't have much influence.

Reminder 1: The flash is good or bad. You may think that the flash on the top of the camera is all the equipment you need to shoot in the dark. In most cases, these instruments use the same battery and have the same function as your camera; They usually don't have enough strength to shoot at night and do anything noteworthy from a few feet away. Anyway, it is very useful when it is used to connect other lights, or when you are shooting an interview.

News interview, your camera is enough. The person being photographed is close to the camera, and there is no specific arrangement. Since this light can be very intense, a small piece of diffusing material should be placed in front of the lamp in advance.

Remember, the camera light is part of the camera and will move with the camera. This makes it play little role in shooting. Also remember, this lamp consumes more power than the camera itself.

Reminder 2: the camera flashes. Note that when some wandering light exists and acts on the lens, the lens is prone to refraction at night, and sometimes the expected effect cannot be achieved. Usually you can minimize this refraction by moving your fixed lighting (background side light is usually the culprit) or covering the lens with the lens cover on your camera.

Reminder 3: In order to get paid. If you have a high-end camera, it can greatly improve the conversion rate of weak electrical signals through electronic gain, and can improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency by several times (more than three times), so that you can still take pictures under the condition of insufficient light. But one negative effect is particles.

As the gain increases (an increase of 3 dB equals an aperture factor), particles will be formed. This effect is very obvious at the level above 9 decibels, but sometimes it means the difference between images and no images. These particles can sometimes be used to enhance the feeling of the picture, but this method should be used less, because the effect is usually soft and sometimes out of focus.

At the end of the day (night shooting usually happens at this time), you will know that shooting in low light is quite beneficial. Of course, when you see such a set of pictures: when poets sing and dance in candlelight, you can't see clearly in the dark, and you will know that what really creates such a beautiful picture is what you can't see.

Night photography mainly refers to shooting scenes under outdoor lighting or natural light at night, which is different from shooting methods and effects under sunlight and flash lighting. It is very advantageous to shoot the night view of the city streets during the festival, because during the festival, the streets, shops, city appearance and windows will be arranged and arranged. Colored lights, neon lights and slogans are added to the larger buildings, which makes the shooting picture more prosperous and beautiful.

First, the characteristics of the night light

In the outdoor night scene, artificial light becomes the main lighting source because there is no sunlight. Due to the special lighting conditions of the night scene, the night scene has the following characteristics. First, the picture is dominated by a large area of dark tones, and the background is dark gray or dark blue. The whole picture presents a low-key effect. There are both high-brightness parts and low-brightness parts in the picture, and the brightness contrast of the picture is greater than that of the daytime scene, as shown in figure1; Second, the sky is blue and dark blue, with a certain brightness distance from the ground. The darkest part of the picture is not the sky, but the scenery on the ground that is not illuminated by light; Third, indoor night scenes are mostly warm under the light, and outdoor night scenes are mostly cyan or dark blue under the light.

Second, night shooting preparation

1. Equipment preparation

Figure 1

It is best to use a hood for shooting at night. At night, because there are often many light sources around, the use of a hood can reduce the unsightly spots produced on the image sensor after the light is refracted by the lens. Therefore, under the principle of not covering the figure, the longer the hood, the better. You also need a rubber eye patch. Because the light enters from the observation window, it will affect the operation of the camera's exposure meter. At night, the camera needs to use a rubber shading eye mask to effectively prevent the light from entering the observation window.

2. Choose the right shooting position

It is also important to choose a place suitable for shooting at night, and choosing the best shooting angle is the key to success or failure. What needs to be pointed out here is that sometimes the angle chosen during the day is very different until the night scene is taken. For the sake of safety, it is best to go to the shooting point one night to check whether the lighting is ideal and whether the shooting point is safe. It is best to have a clear idea. There are no tall buildings or hills in the plane foreground. It is best to choose roads, water and brightly lit buildings as the background. This night scene is rich in layers and colorful (Figure 2). Choose an appropriate angle. Too high or too low an angle can easily deform the roadside buildings. The camera should be placed in a place where it is not easy to be collided and does not hinder traffic. It is best to choose places with concentrated lighting, concentrated vehicles, concentrated buildings and some characteristics.

3. Choose the best shooting time

The best time to shoot the night scene is not after dark, but shortly after sunset, when the sky is still bright and most of the scenery on the ground is still bright. Although it doesn't look like a night scene with naked eyes at this time, the brightness of the sky and ground scenes in the picture is much lower than that when viewed with naked eyes, which is very close to the visual impression of human eyes at night. Especially when shooting large-scale scenes, the afterglow of the sky in the evening makes the sky in the picture not a dead black, and most scenes on the ground still have a certain level, showing an ideal picture with a large brightness contrast and a certain tone level.

4. Adjust reasonable camera parameters

One is to adjust the exposure. It's a headache to shoot the night scene with a digital camera, but the beautiful scenery in front of you is completely out of shape. The problem is not the camera, but you don't know how to use the manual adjustment function to correspond. Shooting at night requires setting the program exposure to dusk and moonlight. Select "M" from the menu in camera mode, and then select "Sunset" in the program AE. This method is used to keep the atmosphere when shooting at dusk, fireworks, neon lights or general night scenes. After setting, press the dial to return.

The second is to adjust the white balance. When shooting at night, you need to set the white balance to outdoor, select WHT BAL in the camera menu, and then press the dial; Then select outdoor from the menu options that appear, indicating that the shooting conditions are sunset/sunrise, after sunset, before sunrise, neon lights or fireworks.

Third, set off fireworks at night.

Now shooting fireworks with a digital camera will definitely make you unforgettable. Shooting fireworks is also done at night, but it won't be as "easy" as shooting the night view of the city. In the whole process of shooting fireworks, the camera should be set up first, and when the fireworks are about to rise and fall, the automatic function should be turned on, so that the fireworks can bloom, float and go out in the night sky within the shooting range, so that the whole process can be recorded in the camera. Shooting fireworks is done at night, of course, the settings of digital cameras have to be reset. You just need to set it manually according to the above method.

When shooting fireworks, it is best to shoot in the distance, so that you can get a panoramic view. If you want to shoot fireworks sparks, you can use the zoom lever of a digital camera to achieve it. Adjust the zoom lever to the zoom position (T), and the fireworks sparks can get closer. Of course, if you can't shoot in the distance, you have to pan up and down to take a panoramic view. However, this operation is more difficult. This shooting method can be used to track the launch process of fireworks. From the launch site, the lens is pushed close and locked on the target, and the lens and fireworks move up synchronously from launch to sky flowering. Such a scene, if the mirror is handled properly, can be completed in one go in just a few seconds, and the visual impact is very strong. However, it is difficult to hit such a target. The key is that the speed of shaking is not easy to master, and it is difficult to move the composition.

Fourth, night fill light skills

When shooting at night, it is often found that the light is insufficient, and the captured image is blurred and has the phenomenon of tail flick. The following methods can alleviate the problems caused by insufficient light.

One is to use the infrared night shooting function. Some DVs have this function and can be used to shoot in dark environment. The night shooting function can be used to shoot objects in the dark, and the ecological environment of Nocturnal Animals can be photographed satisfactorily for observation. For example, Sony can push the Nightshot switch to the On position in camera or memory mode. In addition, it also has the function of super night shooting, and the images taken in this way are brighter than those taken in night shooting mode by more than 16 times. it wont hurt you to try it

The second is to use a wide-angle lens base. It is best to shoot in low light with the shorter end of the lens. When you push the lens, especially in poor light, it is difficult to completely concentrate the light on the object you are shooting. It's best to keep the width and get closer to your camera.

The third is to use camera lights. However, it should be noted that your camera light is sufficient for news type interviews. The person being photographed is very close to the camera, and there is no specific plot. Since this light can be very intense, a small piece of diffusing material should be placed in front of the lamp in advance.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) matters needing attention

One is to avoid strong light. After the shutter is opened, strong light shines directly on the lens, which is easy to produce halo, which leads to the failure of the whole shooting process. So watch carefully when taking pictures to see if there is strong light directly entering the lens. In the process of shooting, we should also be alert to the sudden strong light. If there is a strong light source in the picture, the rapid movement of the lens, especially the lateral movement, should be avoided to prevent Wei Hui phenomenon and damage the aesthetic feeling of the picture.

The second is to avoid moving. Similarly, movement can be avoided. When the focal length is increased by pushing the lens, the amount of light entering the camera is actually greatly reduced. Instead of pushing the lens forward, keep a wide focal length and push your camera closer to the object.

The third is to turn on the anti-shake function. Because the light is not good at night, a little shaking will produce ghosting phenomenon, so you should turn on the anti-shake function when shooting with DV. The setting method on Sony machine is as follows: in camera mode, press the Menu key to display the menu setting, turn Set/Push Exec to select "C", and then turn the dial; Turn Set/Push Exec to select the Steadyshot optiOn, and then select on from the menu options that appear.