How to shoot the indoor prime time effect?

Prime time shooting is something that many photographers need to master. Prime time includes capturing the very natural golden sunlight generated at sunrise or sunset, thus creating magical, mysterious and even extraordinary effects to some extent.

First of all, the weather may interfere with shooting. You may not be able to take pictures outdoors, and sometimes the weather conditions may not meet the shooting conditions.

Secondly, there may be some choices when there is a clear time limit that cannot be met at all. Therefore, it is impossible to wait for the best weather to shoot in prime time.

First of all, the skills and tricks to create the illusion of prime-time lighting.

Prime time has certain characteristics. Every photo should show warm and soft light, golden complexion and good backlight (the brighter the better). Even if you don't go out to take pictures in the morning or at night, it can still be achieved. Here are some simple techniques to achieve this effect.

The basic equipment for shooting indoor prime-time lighting is as follows:

Use the gel filter and then adjust the white balance;

External light source (integrated or off-board flash; Any option is available) as the main light source;

"Soft light" lens, used for soft focus of background (most commonly used for portraits to produce lens effect);

When using a larger aperture or a faster aperture such as f/2.8, various ND filters can avoid overexposure of the image (ND filters help to balance the exposure of the lens).

Second, decide whether to shoot indoors or outdoors.

In this case, it is easier to take photos indoors, because it allows you to better control the lighting and gel, and use multi-flash and different gels.

You need a powerful flash as the background and a gold gel filter. If you can't find the gel with accurate shadow, please use other colors, such as light orange or yellow. Remember to put the flash in front of or behind the window. You can aim the flash at the window to refract the light.

Another thing when creating lighting to simulate prime-time lighting is the loss of flash power, which depends on camera settings. Due to inconsistent charging time, high-speed synchronization (or HSS- high-speed synchronization) cannot work well when recreating prime-time lighting. For example, if you use a full-power flash, the shutter speed is11000, the aperture is f/ 1.4, and the ISO is100, you will lose 5-8 apertures.

Third, use ND filter to avoid high-speed synchronization.

One solution is to use 3-5 times ND filter, reduce all light by 3-5 levels, and allow a lower shutter speed to keep the flash at normal synchronization speed. In this way, the power will increase by 5-8 levels.

Consider increasing the ISO value. For example, you can set the shutter speed to 1/60, the aperture to f/ 1.4, and the ISO to 200, and you will get an aperture of 1 (or 200%) when you output in full flash. But if ISO is raised to 640, shutter speed 1/200 and aperture f/ 1.4 are equivalent to 2.5 apertures or 600% extra power. Finally, we get more power from the equipment by using ND filter, improving ISO and speeding up shutter speed in each ISO step.

Fourth, outline the prospect with a weak flash.

Use a faint flash as the foreground and make sure it is covered with gold, orange or yellow gel. Put the gel filter on the flash.

It is very important to use light diffusion, so that you can get a soft halo. Be sure to guide the light to the side instead of the front, and find a good golden reflector and soft box. The reflector is used to guide the light to the wall, and the soft box is used to make directional light, that is, the soft box is used to project the light to the foreground to get the desired effect.

In order to get a good glare of the sun when reproducing prime-time lighting, we must first place the subject between the camera and the light source, and ensure that the light will not distort the details near the face. On the contrary, in portrait photography, the flash is almost invisible to keep the highlights close to the head of the subject. If the flash is turned off completely, the image will have more backlight than the real prime time.

Put the lamp behind the subject and slowly release it to show more and more light until you find enough light to take a perfect photo. Since the amount of glare will vary, please be sure to shoot many times to get the required image.

Five, "through the window"

If your room has windows, or even several windows, put the flash directly outside the window-the main body looks like "showing prime time" directly in the sun.

When shooting indoors, it is particularly important to set the camera correctly. Every photographer knows that the settings will vary from place to place, and the most important factors to consider are aperture, ISO and shutter speed.

If you want a clear and nearly perfect in-focus image, then a slow shutter and a large aperture are very important. To avoid blurring the image, please make sure to put the camera on a solid tripod. Lower shutter speed will make it easier for you to capture more light, and the setting of large aperture is very important for obtaining clear images.

In addition, ISO is kept below 200. Or, if you have no choice, please at least keep it below 1000. A lower ISO means a larger dynamic range, so there is less noise in the photo.

For bright image photography, the following settings should be followed: low aperture, fast shutter speed and correct ISO to achieve light balance.

Sixth, the post-processing of Adobe Lightroom.

Post-processing can use Adobe Lightroom tools, and there are many simple ways to help you create prime-time effects. In particular, Lightroom's radial filters can be used to create the appearance of sunlight.

Taking photos in prime time is a perfect skill to create high-quality photos that simulate the ideal effect by using the above guidelines for those situations that are not ideal and are not good for you.