How to use light correctly for exposure

Lead: In the early days of photography, natural light, artificial light and ambient light are the most accessible light sources. In commercial photography, a lot of light is played by simulating natural light; As night falls, street lamps light up, and the whole city emits artificial light of red and blue. Observing them carefully can also be one of the themes of shooting. Ambient light refers to all available light sources in the shooting scene, including natural light and artificial light mentioned above, and sometimes even depends on ambient light as an auxiliary light source. After knowing the characteristics of light and the equipment at hand, you can adjust the shooting parameters because of the change of environment, and then you can shoot good works.

How to correctly expose natural light with light

Since the invention of photography, natural light has always been the photographer's best friend and the main learning object of commercial photography lighting. Although we can't control it, learning to make good use of it is the first step to learn photography well. Although natural light includes sunlight, moonlight and even starlight and invisible light, generally speaking, sunlight is the most important thing in photography. With the influence of the distance between the sun and the earth, the position in the sky and the climate, the nature and intensity of natural light will change greatly at different times of the day.

The sunshine under normal illumination is stable and abundant, which can create amazing light and shadow changes.

By analyzing sunlight with prism, it can be found that the seemingly white sunlight is actually composed of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple and other indecomposable monochromatic lights. However, the light that the human eye can see only accounts for a small part of the spectrum; There are also infrared rays, ultraviolet rays, x-rays, and? Invisible light such as rays, cosmic rays and radio waves. When sunlight passes through the atmosphere, it will be refracted for the first time, and then refracted or reflected by different objects again, forming the world we see; When we open the camera shutter, the light is bound to be refracted by the lens and recorded by the negative film or photosensitive element to form a photo.

On cloudy days, the light is stable and uniform, and rich details can be incorporated to avoid shadow interference.

Natural light is particularly important for landscape photography. From morning till night, if we can make full use of the light effect of light and shade, we can make the works have attractive light and shadow interest. Many photographers think that the best natural light is before sunrise or after sunset. At this time, the sky presents a light and soft color, which is the most expressive natural light in landscape photography. For example, low-angle oblique natural light can produce detailed shadows or projections on grass beaches, water surfaces and mountain tops, increasing the richness of images; However, even the strong contrast and shadows caused by direct sunlight, such as the top light or backlight, can make extremely moving photographs. When shooting outdoors, we should not only grasp the instantaneous light and shadow of the subject, but also pay attention to the position change of the sun in the sky. Beauty waits for no one!

The change of sunshine

The ray characteristics of the sun

artificial light

Since the sun dominates the day, the night is often dominated by artificial light. Artificial light sources play an important role in daily life, especially in modern cities. There are many kinds of artificial light sources, how to occupy a place in photographic works?

Although the position of the sun is unparalleled, with the development of lighting technology, artificial light sources created by people still occupy a decisive position in the light used for photography, helping photographers to create many rich and interesting images. Artificial light can only play an important role at night. Whenever night falls, there are bright lights everywhere, which is the best time for us to create. Generally speaking, the sun has just set and there is still a little light in the sky, but when all the street lamps are lit, it is the best time for us to shoot without a tripod.

When the sun goes down, but there is still light in the sky, it is the best time to shoot the night scene with your hands.

At night, the combination of water and light is wonderful and quiet. Carefully observe whether there is enough artificial light by the lake or river beside you at night, and whether there are colorful light and shadow changes; If the lighting conditions are perfect, you can turn the light and the reflection in the water into your favorite works. Of course, the night after the rain is also a good time to shoot; In this case, remember to pay attention to the streets around you, and it is best to choose areas with many tall buildings. At this time, the road will be a sea of light and color. As long as the composition is carefully composed, you will get unexpected results.

When night falls deeply, street lights are the most common theme. When shooting this kind of subject matter, it is suggested to use a tripod to help stabilize the fuselage, avoid image blur caused by vibration, and take a dazzling light track after long exposure. Remember to choose the main street with heavy traffic and try different angles to get satisfactory results.

When night falls, we can turn ordinary street scenes into impressive photos by paying attention to the color changes of different artificial light sources and making good use of the reflection effect between rain and light.

When using artificial light source for composition, we must pay attention to the color of light. Because the colors of artificial light sources are complex and changeable, if there is no good harmony in the works, the photo composition will be disordered and unsightly. If you want to show a big scene with a wide film, it is suggested that you can use a variety of light sources to compose the picture, which will be ideal; However, if you only want to show a small scene, the colors should be few and refined, and try to form color contrast and accurately show the theme. Indoor, we can be divided into two situations: studio and non-studio. For the non-studio part, it is suggested to adjust the white balance according to the on-site light source (tungsten lamp, fluorescent lamp or color LED lamp); If you are in a studio, you should adjust the light distribution method according to the image requirements.

bias light

Unless it is in a studio where the lighting environment can be completely controlled, it is sometimes difficult for us to control the influence of light sources from the environment on the subject when taking pictures; Understand the characteristics of light and the equipment at hand, and take the photos you want according to local conditions. In the shooting environment, all available light sources at the scene are called ambient light, including natural light (such as sunlight and moonlight) and artificial light, such as candlelight, tungsten lamp, fluorescent lamp, neon lamp, fireplace, torch and fireworks? Wait, but the shed lights and flash lights controlled by the photographer are not among them.

In space design and film shooting, ambient light is sometimes regarded as the main light source compared with auxiliary light; However, in plane photography, not only ambient light can be used as the main light source, but also other artificial light sources or light control devices (such as jumping lights or reflectors) can be used as auxiliary light sources. It is also quite common to use only ambient light when shooting in low main light.

When shooting only with ambient light, the dim and faint atmosphere of the scene was successfully preserved, which reflected the ancient love.

The picture shows that using flash to fill the light can successfully highlight the theme and shoot a different feeling.

If the light in the scene is complex, a strong light source must be used as the main light, and the light ratio must be paid attention to to avoid the image performance problem caused by too strong contrast; In addition, how to strike a balance between the color temperature of the live light source and the flash and successfully express the desired atmosphere is also a place that photographers must pay attention to.