Shooting skills in foggy days

During this period, with the continuous arrival of cold air, winter has entered from north to south, and fog has become a common weather phenomenon, which also provides many photographers with creative opportunities and brings a lot of trouble to shooting. Fog gives birth to everything, and fog becomes all kinds. There is richness hidden in simplicity, which can turn ordinary into wonderful beauty. Therefore, fog is an important theme in landscape photography. Taking photos in hazy foggy days can create a dreamy and even bizarre atmosphere and increase the sense of drama in photos. Fog is made up of many tiny water droplets, which can reflect a lot of scattered light. The farther away, the more scattered light, the brighter it looks, and the less clear the scenery in the distance. Therefore, the scenery under the mist can clearly distinguish the foreground, the middle scene and the distant view, and strengthen the sense of depth of the space. Moreover, fog can also give people a dreamy feeling, which can cover up the chaotic parts in many environments, make the theme more prominent and the picture more expressive. Combined with the shooting practice, I sorted out some materials for friends to discuss and exchange.

1, reasonably control the exposure.

In the fog, the whole world is white. The automatic metering system of the camera is easily disturbed by the environment. When shooting fog scenes, the accuracy of exposure is a crucial issue. Generally, fog scenes are dominated by light gray and white tones, and only a little content is dark tones. Therefore, the exposure should be appropriately increased or decreased according to the specific shooting conditions when shooting foggy scenes. Usually, the value of 0.5- 1EV is appropriate, and if the light is measured normally, there will sometimes be underexposure. If you need to process the picture into a highlight effect, you can increase the exposure compensation of 1-2EV, but be careful not to make the highlight too violent. This technique is suitable for expressing elegant and soft artistic conception; If the exposure compensation is reduced, it is suitable to show the thickness effect, and it is set as needed.

However, exposure compensation should also be handled flexibly, mainly depending on the proportion of fog in the picture. The greater the fog ratio, the more attention should be paid to whether the exposure compensation needs to be adjusted. If the fog occupies a small area or is not in the metering area, there is no need to increase the exposure. When shooting, you should always check the histogram of the photo to see the curve overflow, which is also convenient for later adjustment.

In the exposure setting, you can try to capture the movement of fog flow with a long shutter. Sometimes the flow speed of fog is very fast, and the exposure time can be deliberately extended by narrowing the aperture or increasing the grey mirror, so that the fog scene is full of fluidity. This is also a good artistic way, and often amazing results can be obtained.

2. Seize the favorable opportunity of light

Thick fog will cover all colors, shades and shapes, and the photos taken are easy to be gray. When shooting, you need to look for light that can pierce the dense fog and add drama to the picture. Sunlight in the early morning and street lamps in the evening are all excellent shooting subjects. Shooting night scenes in foggy days is often very effective, especially when it is just dark and the sky is not completely dark.

Generally, the best time to shoot fog is 1-2 hours after sunrise, because the light ratio of the sun is strong and the fog is weakened at this time. The distant view is hazy and fuzzy in the fog, the close shot and the middle shot are clearer, and the outline is clearer, so you can take good photos with strong perspective effect. Foggy days are generally scattered light, but the direction of sunlight can generally be distinguished. If you shoot along the light, the scene will sometimes become dull. Generally, you can use backlight or side backlight to increase the perspective effect of the picture and the three-dimensional sense of the scene. It will be better if there are kitchen cigarettes or other cigarettes. Sometimes when the fog is suitable, the sunlight passes through trees or distant mountains, which often forms a strong beam effect, which is a good opportunity to shoot.

3. Understand the significance of blank space in fog shooting.

Photography needs reasonable subtraction in many occasions, and the application of blank space technology is one of the concrete manifestations of subtraction, especially in foggy shooting. Blank, that is, some blank parts on the photographic screen except visible solid objects, are composed of a single-tone background, forming gaps between solid objects. Monotone background can be fog, sky, water, grassland, land or other scenery. Due to the use of various photographic means, they lost their original objects and formed a single color tone on the screen to set off other objects.

Although blank space is not real, it is also an indispensable part of the screen. It is the link between objects on the screen and the relationship between them. The role of blank space on the screen, just like punctuation in an article, can make the picture clear, the paragraph clear and the pulse smooth, and also help the author express his feelings.

If a painting is full of solid objects and there is no blank, it will give people a feeling of depression. If the blank space on the screen is left properly, people's vision will have room for manoeuvre and their thinking may change. People often say, "If a painting is empty for three minutes, it will make you angry." If the blank space is kept properly, the picture will be vivid, ethereal and handsome. The blank space is often full of the author's feelings, and the audience's thoughts and the realm of the work can also be sublimated. The blank of the picture does not exist in isolation, it is always an extension of reality. The so-called emptiness is the contrast between emptiness and reality, forming different associations and emotional appeal. The most classic example is the shrimp painting by Master Qi Baishi. A few transparent and lively shrimps have a large blank around them, but people think that the blank around them is all water. The blank space of photographic pictures and the treatment of real scenes should also arouse the audience's rich association, and use blank space to create artistic conception, which has a creative role in other arts.

Landscape photography is usually beautiful, but it is not easy to shoot well and be innovative. If there is a godsend "stunner" of fog, it is even more necessary to operate patiently. Whether it's a big scene of steaming Xia Wei or a sketch of changing scenery, photographers need to capture it with unique eyes and express it with unique creativity. Photography is the art of subtraction. Rational use of "blank space" can improve the artistic conception of the picture.

4. Focus on the composition of photographic elements.

In foggy days, everything is covered with its true colors. In composition, we should pay attention to shapes and lines, but ignore the true colors of things. Create more abstract pictures by combining lines and shapes. Pay attention to the depth of the picture with distance. Such as juxtaposed tree trunks, street lamps, telephone poles, etc.

Generally speaking, fog and dense fog are not suitable for large scenes because of their low visibility. When shooting, due to the influence of fog, the clarity of distant scenes is reduced and the colors are dim, which is suitable for shooting scenery films and some sketch themes. If it is light fog or flowing strip fog, it is suitable for shooting subjects in large scenes such as mountains and rivers and landscapes.

When arranging the picture composition of fog works, we should try our best to choose distant, middle and close-range pictures to show the depth and perspective of the scene. Due to the poor details of the foreground and the middle scene when shooting in foggy days, the close shot often becomes the visual center, so it must be carefully selected. Generally, dark things should be chosen as the foreground, so as to jump out of the fog and expand the sight distance. Usually, beautiful trees, buildings with rich colors and details, boats with dark silhouettes, birds, reeds, irregular railings and working figures can be selected as the foreground, and better visual effects can be obtained.

The area occupied by the foreground subject should not be too large, so that a large area of light tone can highlight the main body of a small area of black tone, forming a strong contrast between light and dark, which is conducive to the performance of fog and increasing the sense of space and depth of the picture. The middle scene preferably occupies a large area, and the foreground is the basis for setting off the foreground and the middle scene. By comparing the different tones of the front, middle and foreground, the picture level is rich. In the practice of shooting, we should adjust measures to local conditions, give full play to our imagination and creativity, and fully express the characteristics and atmosphere of fog scenes, so as to get ideal works.

5. Black and white processing of fog scene in the later period.

The early exposure accuracy of foggy works is very important, because the definition and contrast level of medium and long-term vision are generally low. If it is excessively adjusted in the later period, the image quality will be seriously degraded, resulting in graininess and color fault. Therefore, we should pay more attention to the exposure accuracy when shooting.

It is a common skill to turn fog scene into black and white in post-processing. Because the color saturation of fog scene is generally low, after black and white film processing, the color can often be more concise and expressive. Black-and-white photography is an abstract expression of the real world, which has obvious subjective characteristics, because it uses a single tone of black, white and gray to express it, which has opened a certain distance from the real color world. Pay more attention to contrast, lighting, outline and texture. In order to accurately express the hierarchy, it is especially necessary to pay attention to the transition of the hierarchy. If you want to "decolorize" and convert it into a rich black-and-white photo, you need a color photo with accurate exposure and rich layers.

Seeing flowers in the fog is illusory, and the scenery in the fog is looming, with a sense of hierarchy and space. At the same time, fog can make the scenery incomplete, and these incomplete scenery can be reassembled to form a new landscape effect. Fog is naturally left blank, resulting in the artistic conception and effect of China traditional ink painting. All this requires careful management, serious treatment, reasonable control, and lose no time to outline the artistic conception of the dispatched person. ...