How to prepare before going out for photography, and what preparations should be made in the early stage of photography?

How to prepare before going out for photography?

When traveling abroad, the basis for taking master photos is not photography, but whether your camera still has electricity. If there is no electricity, even the best SLR camera is just a self-defense brick.

Next, let's take a look at the preparations for photography.

How to prepare before going out for photography?

In the Warring States period, our ancients had already understood the truth that the military forces had not moved food and grass first. Only when the rations keep up can the soldiers have the strength to fight, and so does photo photography. At present, most people have a good grasp of the process and post-photography skills, but we can often see friends around us or netizens in online forums complaining about various problems they have encountered in the shooting process. Most of these problems are caused by their insufficient preparation before photography.

Problems encountered without preliminary preparation

What kind of problems will you encounter if you are not prepared? I believe many friends have personal experience. We often hear someone shouting when they go out to take pictures: Why is my memory card full? Why does my camera have such a small power? Why can't I concentrate? Why is the photo I took this color? Why are all my photos so bright? Why are the photos I took so dark? Wait, are these words familiar to everyone?

Although everyone is familiar with the above content, if you don't pay attention, you may continue to encounter it in the future, which will cause irreparable regret for filming. Imagine that when we went out for a long trip and took out our camera to take pictures, we found that the camera was dead or the memory card was full. Will this make our trip in a bad mood? Of course, when we are shooting, if the parameters are not set well, will it feel bad to come back and see the photos taken with abnormal parameters? Therefore, it is very important to get ready for photography before going out.

Then, we will systematically explain what preparations need to be made before going out.

Does your camera still have electricity?

Pick up the camera and take a trip, is it in line with everyone's pursuit now? But the moment you picked up the camera, did you ever think that you might be depressed for a long time? Many people really just pick up their cameras, put them in their bags and go out. They never turn on the camera to have a look. Look at this step, although simple, but it is crucial. Because your camera may be dead or dying.

In fact, it is the easiest thing to see if the camera has electricity. As long as you turn on the camera, you can directly see the display of electricity on the screen. If you can't turn it on, it means that the camera is completely dead, or there is little power left after turning it on, so take out the battery and charge it quickly, so as to ensure that the fully charged camera can be used at any time when going out.

When traveling abroad, the basis for taking master photos is not photography, but whether your camera still has electricity. If there is no electricity, even the best SLR camera is just a self-defense brick. I would like to remind you once again that many single-camera and card cameras have low battery power, and the cameras consume a lot of power. Such users can consider carrying a spare battery to meet the shooting needs all day. I have experienced the dilemma of shooting with a single camera for half a day, so it is very necessary to have a spare battery for this kind of camera.

Finally, remind everyone that if it is a long-distance trip, don't forget to bring a charger after the camera is fully charged. If it is no longer powerful, the camera battery will not last for two days. But now many cameras can be charged with the data cable of Android phone. This design is very convenient, users can use a data cable to charge their mobile phones.

Of course, when carrying an external flash or other supporting equipment, don't forget to check whether there is electricity, and carry a spare battery with you to ensure foolproof.

Forgetting index: ★★★★

Important index: ★★★★★★★

Does the memory card have land? How much did you bring?

At present, whether you use SLR cameras, single-camera cameras, card cameras or various types of cameras, you basically need to use memory cards. SD, CF and MicroSD are the three most commonly used memory cards in cameras and camcorders. However, have you noticed that people around you often find that their memory cards are full without taking many photos or videos after going out? In fact, it's not that the memory card you bought has a low capacity, but that you didn't empty it before you went out.

In fact, it's not a big problem to forget to empty the original contents of the memory card before going out, because it's ok to delete the contents that were useless before, but remember not to delete the contents by mistake when you go, and don't delete the photos you just took by mistake. If the card can be formatted, the deletion will be more thorough.

After the memory card has land, another problem comes. Now everyone's memory card is generally only about 8G, or even smaller, which is not enough for the era of soaring camera pixels. That is to say, if you take hundreds of photos, the 8G memory card will be full. At this time, everyone needs a spare memory card. The carrying of the spare memory card is actually more important. After all, the memory card is full, and the shooting work behind it can't continue.

In tourist attractions or abroad, the price of memory cards is very expensive, which is several times the price of memory cards we can usually buy. The author has noticed this in many countries, so I suggest you bring your own spare memory card here, otherwise you will definitely be sad in terms of price if you don't buy a memory card when traveling locally.

Forgetting index: ★★★★★

Important index: ★★★★

Don't forget to clean the sensor

For users of SLR cameras, because the lens can be replaced, dust can easily fall on the bottom of the lens and near the reflector of the fuselage. In fact, it is nothing to fall on the dust, but if it is not cleaned in time, there will be many black spots in the photos taken, which will affect the quality of the photos. So the first thing we need to do is to check the dust, adjust the aperture to F 1 1, and take pictures of the wall or sky with the camera to see if there is dust affecting the image quality.

At present, all cameras have automatic sensor cleaning function. If there is dust, you can turn on this function. At this time, the mirror of the camera will rise and the shutter will open. As long as the camera is always on and the battery is sufficient, this state will always be maintained. Then we take out the prepared small hair dryer and blow it at the sensor part of the camera, which can clean up a lot of large pieces of floating ash or hair. Then clean the sensor with a cotton swab in a special cleaning tool. The intensity should be moderate. Too light can't remove the dust stuck on it, too heavy will damage the sensor.

After cleaning, install the camera lens and turn off the camera. At this point, the shutter will automatically close and the reflector will fall. Take a light-colored photo again, and still open the photo in the computer to observe it carefully. If the original black spots are gone, the cleaning is successful. If the black spots still exist, it may be necessary to continue cleaning.

Although it is said that if you don't clean the sensor, you can use post-processing software such as Photoshop to remove the black spots after taking pictures, but because the process is very complicated, I suggest you clean it properly before going out.

Forgetting index: ★★★★★★★

Important index: ★★★★

Size and format adjustment of photos

At present, in order to meet the needs of all users, camera manufacturers have set a number of photo sizes in their cameras, which are mainly divided into L, M and S, and each gear has differences in image quality. L gear has the largest photo size and better relative picture quality, because it can record a lot of photo details. S file is the smallest file, and the size and volume of photos are the smallest, which is suitable for fast transmission, so many reporters will use this file. But for us ordinary photographers, the L file is the best.

Check whether the image quality of your camera is adjusted to the highest quality before going out. Having finished the preparatory work for the early adjustment of image quality and photo size, let's talk about the photo format. At present, most cameras can take photos in RAW format and JPG format. JPG is a photo format that we often see. It has been compressed and processed in the camera. You can read, share and so on directly in the computer after shooting. RAW format is suitable for professionals, so it can't be read directly on the computer.

RAW format literally means unprocessed photos, recording all the original information of the shooting environment at that time, which is convenient for users to adjust later. RAW format photos are much larger than JPG, so shooting RAW photos requires more memory card space, but it can bring us better picture quality and detail presentation.

If we take pictures in RAW format, we can't open them directly in the computer. We need professional post-processing software such as Lightroom or Photoshop to open it. And we can also use this software to post-process the pictures. Professional photographers shoot this format and then post-process.

For ordinary photographers, shooting JPG format is enough, and professionals can consider shooting RAW format and post-processing. Of course, if your memory card has a large capacity, you can consider storing both JPG and RAW formats. This option is basically available for cameras.

Forgetting index: ★★★★★

Important index: ★★★★★

Adjustment of white balance and sensitivity

White balance and sensitivity are both parameter options that directly affect the image quality, so try to remember to check whether these two parameters are correct before going out to take pictures. White balance is the balance of white, literally. There are many white balance options for general cameras. You can choose the appropriate white balance setting according to the photo environment, and of course you can make fine adjustments manually.

If you are in doubt, then we suggest you use the automatic white balance option, which is also the safest. If the white balance is adjusted incorrectly, the picture will turn blue or yellow, and the overall tone will be problematic.

Sensitivity is actually what we often call ISO. Nowadays, cameras have excellent noise control, so the range of ISO values is very wide, generally from ISO 100 to ISO 12800 or higher.

The magic of ISO is that it allows us to take very clear and bright photos in the dark, but if we use high ISO in a well-lit place, it will leave a lot of noise in the picture, which will seriously affect the picture quality. The most deadly thing is that it is difficult for us to detect it on the small screen of the camera and we will regret it when we get home.

Therefore, you should check whether the ISO value is correct before going out for a trip, and whether you adjusted the ISO value very high before and forgot to bring it back. Of course, the best way is to adjust the ISO value at any time when taking pictures, so as not to cause any trouble in this respect. If you don't have much idea about how many ISO should be used in the environment at that time, then you can use automatic ISO selection, which won't cause too much trouble. However, when using the automatic ISO option, please remember to set the values of the upper and lower limits of ISO.

Forgetting index: ★★★★★★★

Important index: ★★★★★★★

Don't forget the focusing system and photometry.

Every photo needs to be focused before shooting. No matter whether the composition is excellent or not, concentration is the least thing. Especially for friends who use a large aperture lens, because the foreground and background will be blurred when using a large aperture, only the part where the focus is located will be true, so focusing is particularly important. We often find that when people with low photography level take group photos with SLR cameras, the background is often extremely sharp, while the people in front of the background are blurred and can't see clearly.

Every photographer has his favorite focusing method and choice, and the camera also provides a very rich focus. When taking pictures, we can adjust the corresponding focal length to shoot the object we need to focus on, so that focusing is easier and faster. Of course, if we want to shoot a moving object, then we can use autofocus mode in the focus tracking part. So adjust the focal length before taking pictures.

In addition to focusing, we should also pay attention to the metering part. Photometry may be an option rarely used in our daily photography, especially for ordinary photographers. We may not adjust the metering mode for many years, but the metering mode is very important and helpful for taking pictures in different environments.

At present, the most common modes of our cameras are evaluation metering, central focus metering and spot metering. Most of our users generally use evaluation photometry, but in special circumstances, evaluation photometry is the most inaccurate.

Spot metering is to measure a small area near the focus, and its metering result is only responsible for that small area. Its advantage is that it can ensure the accurate exposure of small-scale objects to the greatest extent, and its disadvantage is also obvious, that is, the camera exposure can not take into account the overall situation, and sometimes there will be obvious overexposure or underexposure outside the focus. The principle of central focus photometry is the same as that of spot photometry, except that it measures a larger range instead of a point. Its advantage is that when shooting automatically, it is easier to get more real and close to reality metering, and there will be no exposure error caused by the wrong alignment of metering points. Mainly suitable for portraits and close-up photos. Evaluation photometry is to divide the picture into several areas and measure each area separately. Then the camera processor summarizes the measured values of each area and calculates a final value by weight, thus measuring the whole picture. The advantage of this metering mode is that you can easily get a balanced picture, without local overexposure or underexposure of highlights, and the whole picture is balanced in light and shade. Its disadvantage is that it can't satisfy many situations, such as shadow, backlight and so on. This metering method is generally used for group photos and landscape photos.

Forgetting index: ★★★★★★★

Important index: ★★★★★★★

Is your camera on anti-shake?

For SLR users, their lenses are replaceable and advanced, and there are usually many kinds of levers on the lenses. Users can adjust these levers to turn on and off some functions, among which the two most important levers are to control anti-shake and manual/autofocus. Generally, everyone who has the anti-shake function will choose to turn on the anti-shake function and choose the focus mode in the autofocus position, which can be of great help to shooting, especially for users with average photography level.

Let me talk about the anti-shake part first. The anti-shake lever of the camera is the word stabilizer, and the jitter of the photos taken after opening will be improved to some extent. Lens anti-shake is to set a special anti-shake compensation lens group in the lens. According to the direction and degree of camera shake, the compensation lens group adjusts its position and angle accordingly to keep the optical path stable. After turning on the lens anti-shake, it really has a very prominent effect on the anti-shake when taking pictures, which I have a lot of experience myself. Therefore, before taking a photo, everyone should check whether the lens anti-shake is turned on, but at present, many high-end lenses are not equipped with anti-shake function.

There are many times when you will find that all your settings are fine, but the photos you take are completely out of focus, that is, the whole picture is blurred. Most of these situations come from users of SLR cameras or single-camera cameras, because they turn on the manual focus of the lens.

Manual focusing is a test of eyesight and experience for ordinary photographers, so most people don't use manual focusing. Now all lens manufacturers have designed automatic/manual focusing rods for everyone. When taking pictures, you can directly put the lever in the autofocus part, that is, the subtitle part of A or M/A, so you don't have to worry about virtual focus when focusing.

Because the lens lever is designed on the side of the lens, people sometimes touch the lever by mistake when putting the lens into the bag or taking it out. Therefore, every time you take out the lens, you should check whether these levers are in their required functions to avoid various situations when taking pictures.

Forgetting index: ★★★★★

Important index: ★★★★★★★

Time and author information settings

After the trip, I turned on the computer, imported photos into the computer, and then opened the photos. I often find that my photos have traveled through time, or the author of the photos is not myself, but a colleague or friend. Although this kind of thing will not affect the appreciation of photos, it will always cause unpleasant feelings in everyone's heart. After all, if the author writes his name and the time is accurate, it will make everyone happier.

In fact, adjusting the time of the camera is the easiest thing. The initialization setting after buying a camera will also involve this project. Generally speaking, after the time and date are adjusted, they don't need to be changed, unless others adjust them, they need to be readjusted. The adjustment of the camera's time and date is also very simple, which can be found in the obvious position of the menu.

The adjustment of the author's information is actually a very complicated matter, because many users simply don't know that the camera will have such an option after getting its own SLR, which is the words "artist" and "copyright" in the above picture. This part of the content requires us to find the relevant options in the menu and spell our own names, so that all the photos taken will have their own names and the copyright belongs to them.

Forgetting index: ★★★★★★★

Important index: ★★