Introduction to night photography skills

Lead: Whenever the brightly lit night comes, the beautiful night scene will always make people linger. At this time, pressing the shutter to take pictures is also a great pleasure in life. But unfortunately, most of the night scenes taken with digital cameras? Works? It is far from the real scene, either the portrait definition is not high or the background is blurred. what can I do? Don't worry, practice according to the method we recommend to you, and your troubles will be eliminated.

Introduction to night photography skills 1. Selection of photographic equipment

Because night scenes and dawn scenes belong to low light sources, if you want to take a long exposure shot, you must first prepare a stable tripod, otherwise it is easy to take a blurred image; As for the choice of pan-tilt collocation, it is suggested that spherical pan-tilt collocation is better, because spherical pan-tilt is not only convenient for photographers to control quickly, but also helpful for composition control.

It is also an indispensable auxiliary tool, because it can not only effectively avoid the instantaneous vibration caused by pressing the shutter, but also master the required exposure time through the B shutter function, so that you can be more handy when you are engaged in image creation; As for the gradient filter, it is used for exposure balance.

Second, make good use of manual function.

Because the night scene belongs to the scene with low light source and low Gao Fancha, if you shoot with automatic focusing (AF), you will often lose focus. At this point, you must switch to manual (MF) mode to overcome the problem of not being able to focus.

The manual focus control mode is quite simple. The photographer only needs to switch MF mode, aim the lens at infinity, and then turn the focus ring back a little bit to achieve the purpose of focusing. If the reader feels uneasy, it is suggested to take a photo first, and then use the camera magnification function to watch it locally to avoid the problem of out-of-focus image.

In addition, if your camera has built-in LiveView real-time preview function, you can also confirm the focus through this function. Through the observation window, you can observe the focus of manual focusing in real time.

MF manual focusing function can not only focus accurately in poor light environment, but also save electricity.

Third, choose the appropriate exposure mode.

When shooting at night, you must use the exposure mode correctly according to the shooting target in order to shoot the ideal image in your mind. Generally speaking, if you just want to take a few photos at night as a souvenir, you can use automatic or P (program) exposure mode, but if you want to take a charming image with hazy aesthetic feeling, you'd better use aperture priority (AV), shutter priority (TV) or manual exposure mode (M), because the image effect can be changed more through manual control. It is suggested to learn M manual mode when the ability allows, so it is easier to create the required image effect.

If you use automatic exposure (that is, Auto/P/Av/Tv/S/A) mode at night, it is easy to overexpose. The reason for this is that the camera will be misled by a wide range of dark environment, making the photos overexposed. So when shooting the night scene, we can use the full manual mode, or use the B shutter (the shutter is always open until the photographer tells it to close), so that we can set the appropriate shutter and aperture ourselves. Of course, it takes experience to find the right combination of aperture and shutter, and novices can take more photos to see the effect. If you want to know whether the photo is overexposed, you can observe whether the light spots in the photo are clear. In other words, the light spots taken under normal exposure, such as the most common lights, look very clear and distinct. On the contrary, if the photo is overexposed, will there be light spots? Melt away? Feeling, lines will be unclear.

Therefore, in night shooting, exposure control is very important. At night, the sky is generally dark and the lights are generally on. Unlike human eyes, cameras can't recognize so many levels of light and shadow. If you use an automatic full exposure system to measure light, the photos you take are usually too explosive or too dark. In order to ensure that the photos can reflect the atmosphere of the night scene at that time, we adopted the method of exposure compensation, and reduced the exposure compensation by 0.3ev- 1ev as appropriate.

Use the bracketing exposure method to select the most suitable setting in the current environment. For example, under a fixed aperture, take a few photos with a time of 3 seconds, choose the best time from them, and then wait for the most wonderful moment to capture.

Fourth, the use of aperture size.

By using the aperture size, various image changes can also be transformed at night. For example, when the aperture is small, because the focusing range is wide, it is easier to take a large-area clear image when it is used for night shooting, and it can also capture the starlight effect from a single light source; As for the larger aperture, because the focus range is relatively small, it is easy for photographers to take blurred images in front or behind, which can make the images present a unique hazy feeling, especially in light. However, it should be noted that the large aperture is not suitable for large-scale shooting, and it is more suitable for sketching or local photography, so as to fully show its charm.

? Take pictures with a large aperture lens.

When we put the lens on the fuselage, the aperture of the lens will automatically open to the maximum. In a dark environment, a larger aperture allows more light to enter the lens and makes the picture on the viewer clearer.

? Shoot with a small aperture

It may seem a little contradictory. Why do you want to shoot with a small aperture now? There is a simple reason. The purpose of using a large aperture lens is to facilitate the photographer to see more clearly when shooting, but the aperture is reduced for the following two reasons: first, a small aperture can make the depth of field larger, so that the scene will not be blurred by the influence of shallow depth of field; Second, if there is light at night, shooting with a small aperture can make the light star-shaped and the effect is more prominent.

5. Turn down the brightness (ISO)

I believe everyone knows that high sensitivity brightness can get faster shutter speed at the same aperture value to reduce the jitter problem when shooting, but it will cause noise in the photo.

Especially when shooting at night, long exposure will make the dark noise particularly obvious, so if the environment permits, it is best to use tripod and low ISO value to get the best shooting effect.

Six, set the white balance

It is not recommended to use automatic white balance when shooting night scenes, because in dark environment, automatic white balance can easily become inconsistent, leading to color difference in photos.

You can use it when shooting at night. Tungsten lamp? The white balance of the mode, but of course, choose the most suitable mode according to the environment at that time. In addition, saving photos in RAW format allows photographers to adjust the white balance as needed afterwards, which is more convenient.

Seventh, use a slow shutter.

In addition to the fun of shooting with a large aperture, the slow shutter can actually create a different visual effect. Because the slow shutter can capture the instantaneous light and shadow lines, it can inject a unique vitality into the night scene problem. Take the car track scenes that ordinary players often shoot as an example, which is the expression of slow shutter. Although the shooting skill is not high, it can give the image a completely different feeling.

Generally speaking, photographers only need to narrow the aperture to F 1 1? F 16, and the shutter is controlled at 4? 8 seconds, and then correct the shutter time according to the captured image. However, it should be noted that due to the complexity of the urban night light source, the tapered mirror can be used to assist in the correction when shooting, effectively avoiding the local darkening or overexposure of the image.

Taking pictures of buildings at night can take pictures of vehicles on the road together, which can add a lot of color to the general street view.

Eight, composition

The composition of the night scene is different from that of the day. At this time, it is already dark, and basically the shape of the building is outlined by lighting, so lighting has become our main performance object at this time. At this time, we should pay attention to the area below the luminous building, and the horizontal line should be controlled in one third of the picture, so that the photographed building has a sense of stability.

IX. Level

And if you want to take a picture, the sky and the subject have a rich layered picture. First of all, tripod is absolutely essential, and long exposure of door B is a necessary setting for taking such photos. In addition to the choice of equipment, there is also a crucial factor, that is, weather and time. The weather should be the day after the rain, because the dust attached to the air has been knocked off by the rainstorm, and the sky will be clearer at this time.

The time should be chosen at dusk, the sun has not completely set, there should be light in the sky, the clouds are particularly rich, and the neon lights have been turned on. At this time, the contrast between heaven and earth is the weakest, and of course it is the best shooting time.

Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that some city photographers spend a year shooting a film, because they need to experience the four seasons of the city, choose the best shooting time and season, the most beautiful day of the year, and may have to wait another year in case of unexpected circumstances.