Scenery blockbuster: grasping the early and late stages

Friends who are familiar with me know that in my usual communication with my photography friends, I often talk about the importance of CPL filter, medium gray gradient filter and RAW format shooting. During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, I went to Guyuan and took some photos. I just have the opportunity to share the actual effect of a movie with you.

My practical Canon 5D MARII camera, EF 17-40L lens, B+W ultra-thin CPL, Tianya medium gray filter and medium gray gradient filter, Bainuo carbon tripod and KB2 pan/tilt.

In order to keep more details, my camera settings are neutral, that is, the camera is not allowed to do any "post-processing". The camera began to record RAW files, but after the camera's own "computer" processing, it finally formed JPEG format.

Digital photography, RAW format is a must. If the final work is compared to a handicraft, the RAW format is a thick log, while the JPEG format is a chopstick. RAW has enough carving space, JPEG doesn't.

Let's talk about the previous considerations first. The scene was good at first, with a small plank road, water and clouds, and a little red cloud on the top. To paraphrase Mr Wu Guanzhong, the scene is "painting".

The general idea in the early stage: first, use CPL filter to adjust the level of clouds and the brightness of water surface, and highlight the reflection in the plank road water. Then measure the foreground, reduce the amount of light with medium gray, atomize the water surface, and finally darken the sky with medium gray gradient filter.

This only uses CPL filter, not medium gray gradient filter. This may also be the effect taken by most friends.

Parameters: ISO 100, F 18, 2.5 seconds, partial metering.

The second one uses the same scene, the same composition, the same aperture and the same metering point, but it uses a medium gray filter and a medium gray gradient filter. In order to extend the exposure time, balance the exposure of the sky and water.

Parameters: iso 100, f 18, 10 second, partial measurement.

It is precisely because I have adopted a neutral setting that the film is gray and not rich in color, but the exposure of the film is balanced and the details are rich, and the final color depends on the later stage.

We have a high-quality basic material, and this time is the time to show your talents in the later stage. You can integrate your own ideas and understanding of the scenery into it. This stage is a very important part of your own photography style.

1. Open the RAW file with ACR of PHOTOSHOP CS5. The reason why I like ACR to adjust RAW files is that it can make many fine adjustments, not just macro tone processing (Figure 1).

2. Click Automatic to see the effect of software generation, and of course, you can also fine-tune various parameters yourself (Figure 2).

You can use the default style in the software. Here, I choose the landscape mode. Then go back to the fundamentals and adjust the color temperature, exposure, sharpness and saturation. In order to highlight the late effect, the game I adjusted here is a bit "heavy". In the future, you can handle it as appropriate in your actual adjustment (Figure 3 and Figure 4).

Figure 4

Is the color much brighter? Now the tone of the film has been formed. Different people, with different feelings to see the same scenery, will have different impressions in their own minds. So I emphasize that you should feel and express the color in your heart and your feelings.

4. Adjust the contrast between the curve and the film (Figure 5).

Figure 6

5. Lens correction: increase or decrease the dark angle of the lens (Figure 6).

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6. Sharpen in the original stage (Figure 7).

7. Adjust different colors according to the colors in the picture (Figure 8).

8. Number eight. RAW stage has basically come to an end and has been converted into JPEG format (Figure 9).

9.JPEG format adjustment, mainly color scale, curve, saturation, etc. (figure 10, figure 1 1 and figure 12).

Figure Xi

10. Sharpen, resize the picture, increase the border and add text. Flash also shared these contents in previous blogs. You can have a look. The final film is as follows:

Final effect

There are many adjustments in the RAW stage, and only some of them are introduced here. We can continue to communicate with you about other functions in the future.

Stiffness is needed in the early stage, filters are very important, and tripods and pay-off are indispensable. The early stage is the foundation, timely help, and the later stage is improvement, which is the icing on the cake.

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