How to shoot the scenery under backlight, and the skills of landscape photography under backlight

Scenery photography skills under backlight

In digital landscape photography, backlight photography is a photography technology with certain shooting difficulty and unique artistic effect. Backlight comes from the back of the scene, and the subject we shoot is often a dark part without direct light, which is not easy to show the light and dark levels and lines of the scene, with large contrast and many changes. Without rich shooting skills and experience, the exposure of the subject will be inaccurate and the unique charm of backlight photography will not be displayed. Therefore, photographers should be able to skillfully use and master the following skills when shooting backlit photographs.

1. The exposure shall be subject to the exposure of the subject, and the rest shall be ignored. If you shoot the sunrise or sunset, you should take the exposure value of the sky or the sun as the main basis.

2. When shooting flowers, plants, people, animals and other scenes with clear outline and transparent texture, we should choose a darker background as the contrast, and use high light as the basis for metering when exposing, so as to create a strong light ratio contrast, strengthen the backlight effect, and achieve the artistic effect of clear outline and prominent subject.

3. When shooting the silhouette effect, the exposure should be based on the bright background brightness.

4. Because the camera is facing the strong light source when shooting in backlight, we should pay attention to the influence of glare. Try using a hood or using hands, hats, cardboard, etc. Stand in front of the camera or adjust the shooting angle to prevent glare. There are two most commonly used backlight shooting effects: one is silhouette effect, and the other is silhouette effect. The following are backlight photos taken at the same time, place and subject matter in different ways, with completely different effects.

Side light effect under backlight

This is the camel caravan photographed in the desert of Ejina Banner, Inner Mongolia from June 5438 to October 2005. Although it was in a backlight state at that time, due to the relatively high position of the sun, the camel caravan part and the top of the sand dune illuminated by light outlined bright outlines, which formed a unique contour light effect under backlight with a large area of dark black background. When shooting, photometry is the main method, and the average photometry should be reduced by 2 ~ 3 blocks to avoid overexposure.

Silhouette effect

The shooting of silhouette effect is relatively simple, and the exposure of bright parts is the standard when shooting, which mainly reflects the unique color and atmosphere of the environment.

The background is simple and there are ways.

Landscape photography not only emphasizes the choice and arrangement of the subject, but also can't ignore the treatment of the background. Background refers to the scenery behind the subject to set off the subject, so as to emphasize the environment in which the subject is located. Background plays an important role in highlighting the image and enriching the subject connotation. Background processing is an important link in the structure of photographic pictures. Only by careful selection in shooting can the picture content be refined and accurate, and the visual image be perfectly expressed. The ideal background should be simple and pure, with exquisite visual elements and harmonious colors. Experienced photographers are good at mobilizing various skills to realize the simplicity of the background, and all unnecessary elements in the background that hinder the main body from protruding should be subtracted. To sum up, there are several ways to improve the background:

The first is the fuzzy method.

That is, a larger lens aperture (such as F2 or F2.8) is used to reduce the depth of field as much as possible, and the focus falls on the subject, so that the background behind the clear subject is blurred, thus achieving a good effect of setting the virtual against the real.

The second is the occlusion method.

That is, using rising clouds, misty white fog, branches and leaves of trees, or sunny surfaces of mountains, walls and other objects to hide the background, thus highlighting the main body.

The third is the avoidance method.

That is, adjust the shooting height, or lean back to avoid the messy scenery on the horizon, and set off the main object neatly on the sky background; Or take the road, water and grassland as the background, so that the outline of the main body is clear and a concise background is obtained. Sometimes a long focal length lens is used to reduce the background, and messy scenes are excluded from the picture.

Flying South in Wild Goose: With the blue natural sky as the background, the scattered geese fly overhead, and the main body is prominent and clear.

High-profile shooting of scenery

High-profile, also known as bright tone. Usually, light-colored photos are called high-profile photos. The tone of high-profile photos is mostly light, which consists of several levels from light gray to white. Generally concise and clear, suitable for expressing the theme with white as the keynote. Although high-profile photos are dominated by high-grade light tones, they still require rich levels and do not exclude small dark tones. Due to the large area of light tones, a small number of deep tones are more prominent, which can play the role of finishing touch.

When taking high-profile landscape photos, we should pay attention to five points: first, choose light-colored scenery, and the colors of the subject and companion should be as close as possible; Second, choose a light background, and use a white or light gray background to set off the dark subject. These light backgrounds can be rain, fog, clouds and smoke, or endless mountains and vast waters. Thirdly, the front light or diffused light is used to obtain a soft and flat image. In sunny days, a shadowless lamp image can be obtained by using flat and direct front light; In rainy days, images with soft contrast can be obtained by using symmetrical and peaceful diffuse light or reflected light; Fourth, increase the exposure, according to the specific situation, increase the exposure by 0.5 ~ 1.5 on the basis of the normal luminosity value, which can brighten the background; Fifth, the light ratio should be controlled within 1∶2. If the light ratio is too large, the highlights will either be completely lost or the gray tone will darken, thus losing the characteristics of high-profile photos.

In natural scenery photography, high-profile techniques are often used to express delicate, ethereal and vast beautiful scenery. There are many natural backgrounds that can be used. For example, when shooting Jiangnan scenery, it is often based on the concept of blank to highlight the main scenery, with simple composition and close technique, and the rest gradually change into hazy distant trees, fresh water, fog, rain and smoke. There is also shooting snow scenes. Almost pure white snow is an excellent background for seeking high-profile images. In architectural landscape photography, the method of selecting a corner and a half of the scene or focusing on one side is often used to attract the attention of the viewer to the empty space, giving people a space for meditation and reverie. There is also the sky as the background, the elevation angle is taken, and the exposure is subject to the luminosity value of the subject. The sky is pure white due to overexposure, which can well show the high-profile effect of the whole picture.

Low-key shooting scenery

Low key, also known as dark tone. Usually, photos with strong colors are called low-key photos. The tones in low-key photos are mostly black and dark gray, which are composed of several levels from dark gray to black. The tone of the whole picture is heavy and deep. Generally, it is suitable to express the theme with dark black as the keynote, to create a solemn, dignified and quiet atmosphere, and to reflect the characteristics of vicissitudes and calmness. Although most low-key photos are dark shadows, small areas of white highlights are not excluded. Due to the large area of dark tones, small pieces of white are particularly obvious, forming a visual center, making the whole picture vivid.

When shooting low-key landscape photos, we should pay attention to six points: first, choose a scene with deep color, and the color of the partner should be relatively deep, which is in harmony with the low-key of the subject; Second, choose a dark background, pure black or dark background can set off the light-colored subject; Thirdly, using side light or side backlight, these light levels, viewed from the direction of the lens, have a small light receiving area of the main body, which is profile light and easy to obtain dark light images; Fourthly, to reduce the exposure, we should reduce the exposure by 0.5 ~ 1.5 on the basis of the normal photometric value according to the specific situation, so as to darken the background; Fifth, the light ratio is large, which can be greater than 1: 4 or even1:8; Sixth, using the shadow of the sun as a foil is to use the shadows such as mountains and walls that the sun can't shine as the background to hide the messy lines in the shadows.

In natural scenery shooting, the photos with low-key effect are mostly in special weather or time, such as the scenery under the clouds, showing a solemn and stirring, atmospheric and heavy low-key artistic conception. In the morning or evening, low-angle sunlight has obvious directionality, long light projection time and large shadow area, which can separate the projection planes of various scenes and highlight some important aspects in the picture, thus presenting three-dimensional and deep-colored landscape photos. You can make full use of these periods to take low-key photos. Also, shoot with the help of night light. Different from the daytime, except for the faint moonlight, lights and fireworks, the ground is dark in large areas at night. With the help of tripod and cable release, long exposure can also take low-key night photos.

Autumn morning in Shan Ye: The morning glow shines on white autumn reeds and thatch, and the dark background sets off the theme to be expressed.

Paixi Waterfall in Virtual Reality

Waterfalls and streams are the most poetic landscapes in the natural landscape. Deep in the mountains, they fly, snow waves fly, waterfalls are extraordinary and magnificent.

Choosing the right season and looking for distinctive streams and waterfalls is the premise of taking good photos. In the choice of frames, in order to show the broad and swift momentum of waterfalls, horizontal frames are often used; In order to show the deep and big waterfall and the feeling of flying down three thousands of feet, vertical frames are often used; In order to show the soft stretch, a square frame with a medium distance is used. Creek waterfalls are mostly in valleys, so there is often no room for manoeuvre when shooting. To take a panoramic view, use a medium-wide angle lens. Take its local and close-up, it is inseparable from the telephoto lens. Regarding the shooting height, the flat shot is close to the usual line of sight, which makes people feel cordial and immersive; Looking down, the perspective of the waterfall changes greatly, which is conducive to expressing the level and quantity; When shooting from the back, the height of the waterfall in the perspective of the picture is more majestic and tall than it actually feels. The shooting direction usually adopts a slightly horizontal direction, not too straight, so as to avoid dull pictures.

In addition to the above points, it is more important to deal with the authenticity of the picture when shooting waterfalls. The acquisition of dreamy and poetic artistic conception depends on the simultaneous development of reality and reality. The utilization of reality and emptiness are two complementary aspects. If the picture is full of real scenes, it will give people a sense of oppression. On the contrary, the picture is full of emptiness, and there is no real place at all, which will make people feel empty. Therefore, only by properly grasping the complementarity, mutual foil and mutual growth of virtual and real can we get endless fun in the picture. This is mainly reflected in the choice of camera shutter speed. If you take a splash picture, you can use a high-speed shutter to show the water droplets. But in most cases, we can't do this. In order to show the dynamic trend of the waterfall and look soft and elegant, we must try to reduce the shutter speed and shoot at a slower shutter speed. And the slower the shutter speed, the smoother, more exaggerated and more expressive the waterfall is. The commonly used shutter speed is 1/2 seconds to 1 second or even several seconds. There are usually four ways to realize slow shutter: one is to narrow the aperture and extend the exposure time relatively; The second is to choose a dimly lit rainy day or shoot in the morning and evening; Thirdly, lower sensitivity is selected by setting; The fourth is to add neutral grey mirror (if one piece is not enough, two pieces will be superimposed). To avoid jitter when using the slow door, be sure to fix the camera on the tripod and use the cable release to open the shutter. If there is no cable release, you can enable the self-timer function.

"nectar of jade liquid": between colored stones and moss, where the stream flows is clearly nectar of jade liquid, as if it were a beautiful dream that does not exist in reality. This wonderful effect of softness, illusion and elegance is especially full of tenderness. The aperture F 13 was used when shooting, and the exposure time was as long as 8 seconds.

First, you should choose a panoramic picture to shoot, and then start looking for valuable themes: you should imagine the landscape as a grid composed of multiple quadrangles in your mind, which can help you pay more attention to every element in the landscape.

Professional photographers will use frosted glass with horizontal and vertical lines in the viewfinder. Some digital cameras have projected these auxiliary lines to the LCD screen electronically. If your camera doesn't have this function, you can also draw lines on the LCD screen with an erasable soft pen. This can not only divide the subject into several parts conveniently, but also help to find the golden section.

In order to find the shooting theme, you can also observe with your fingers. Form a rectangle with the index finger and thumb of both hands. Although it may look funny, you can find the theme quickly. Of course, you can also use cardboard folded at an angle or an empty carriage to achieve the same goal.

Overview and panorama

In a photo, condescending plays an important role. However, this aerial photography requires some preparation work. Photographers can shoot directly from the window when flying during the day, which can truly record the actual geographical structure.

If you don't have this condition, you can also try to find a highest point. For example, in the upper right corner, you can overlook the valley or bay from the mountain. If you are in a city, a tall building can achieve the same goal.

To get panoramic photos, you can shoot continuously in the same direction. But now many digital cameras have this panoramic photo shooting function. If your camera doesn't have this function, you can simply take 4 to 6 photos with overlapping edges, and then combine these photos in Photoshop or other image editing software. It is important to manually set a fixed aperture and shutter value. Because if automatic exposure is used when each photo is taken, brightness jump will inevitably occur at the transition between photos.

Show motion through lines

Dynamic line is an important composition element. You should outline a small part of the scenery with the selected photo theme, so that you can get more vivid elements in the structure of the photo, for example, you can put a stream in the grassland. These lines should not be simply placed in the center of the photo, but should be placed diagonally.

In addition, streets and walls are also suitable as dynamic lines. You can place the camera like this until the wall in the viewing range extends in the direction of the audience. In this way, the photos have a soothing change. This line should end within the framing range, but don't simply start from the other end of the photo. Don't let these lines pass through in a simple straight line in the photo. Lines with slightly curved or other shapes will be more vivid and interesting.

AnselAdams is a great master of landscape photography. In the late1930s, he used the regional system method to achieve perfect black-and-white photo shooting. For color photos, the guiding principle that all areas in the photo need hue is equally effective, and hue is the gray value.

If you want to know more about the ideal brightness distribution in a photo, you should first put the camera aside and convert the subject into gray values in your mind. Now, you have to look at this photo from a purely mathematical point of view. Each brightness area has a percentage value, where 100% represents dark black and 0% represents pure white. In an excellent photo, there will be no overexposed or underexposed areas. You can try to find the right exposure time in any light condition. It should be noted that every area in the photo has a color scale.

Detail shooting

It is not common to take a large number of photos at all scenic spots. In most cases, photographers will choose a specific place or a very special area to describe the travel process. If you want to show the internal consistency of a series of photos, it is very important to shoot the details. These details are not found in general scenery shooting. You can photograph local people at work, a classic dish or local plants and animals. Please try to shoot local objects or some details simply, and choose a typical composition method. This can form a good contrast with the landscape photos taken with great efforts. The audience can not only get information about this place, but also feel the stories told in the photos. In order to remember clearly which river you are concerned about when you get home, you'd better take a notebook with you. In this way, you can immediately write down some information about this place and the subject matter of shooting.

Night shooting: Underexposure is necessary.

In order to capture the typical night scene atmosphere, we must be flexible. You don't have to wait until your eyes feel dark before you are ready to take pictures. Generally speaking, it's already late. What you have to wait for is the moment when the street lamp lights up. At this time, the sun has set, and the artificial light emitted by street lamps is projected on the building. In order to get the dark blue hue in the sky, we should consciously underexpose in manual mode. For this reason, you should look for an area with only weak light and record the photometric data at this time. Next, with this reference value, you can complete a series of photos. Taking this measured exposure data as a reference, shooting can be completed under three different aperture data: brighter and darker. One of these photos will always be properly exposed. However, the deep blue sky can only be photographed on a cloudless night in Wan Li.