How to make a low-key photographic work

How to make a low-key photographic work

When you have a certain understanding of photography, you might as well challenge yourself and do the photography exercise I brought you: low-key photography. The seemingly ordinary photos are actually challenging your understanding of photography. The essence of low-key photography is to keep the image to the blackest, but keep the details to the blackest. If you are not familiar with the skills of low-key photography, don't miss the "How to shoot low-key photography" I brought you today!

First, the shooting skills of low-key photos

Low-key photography is usually called dark tone photography. As the name implies, it is a photography technique that controls the tone of the whole picture very dark and the overall brightness is very low. However, it is not the purpose of dimming. The purpose is to highlight what the bright part wants to express more clearly through a large area of low and dark tones, and to express the content and atmosphere of the work with strong tone contrast.

This reflects what photographers often say? Photography is subtraction? The idea of subtraction is to extract the photography theme you want to express in the picture, and remove the rest of the miscellaneous information through photography skills, so as to express the artistic conception of the work more directly and clearly, which will be more impactful visually. Therefore, it is not very simple to take low-key photography. In addition to understanding some necessary theoretical knowledge, we should shoot more and accumulate experience and skills.

Strictly speaking, there should be no absolute corresponding color between the blackest and whitest, that is, absolute white should not be seen in low-key photos. Of course, it depends on the subject you choose to shoot and how to control the exposure. For example, eyes and hair are a big obstacle to shooting Asians with high-profile portraits. Look at the photos above. Black eyes stand out. The so-called little red among evergreen trees is the most successful.

The relationship between gray scale, luminosity and high and low keys

From black to white, the reading of each exposure is different. Through gray scale, we can better understand what is low-key in photography;

Low key:

Try to keep the color of 1-4 area; Avoid the absolute white color in the 10 area, which is also a place with no details at all, such as light sources.

Region 5 is the most commonly used in the whole gray scale. Have you ever heard of someone else's gray card for measuring white balance? That's the gray of Zone 5, or rather, 18% gray. The goal of all metering systems is to adjust the metering position to zone 5, so that the photos look more uniform.

Second, choose a theme.

Because the photos of this theme should be controlled to the blackest, in other words, things with low contrast (there is little difference between dark and light colors) are more likely to succeed. Let's share a few examples:

Portrait:

Pay attention to the contrast between eyes and hair. Make-up and wig are reliable. But if you don't pursue absolute perfection, even a little black and white will look good.

Macro:

This is the easiest choice to succeed. Low contrast and easy exposure control.

Scenery:

Not recommended, because the contrast is extremely high, it is difficult to control the exposure, unless you post-process the photos or take infrared photos.

Why do you want to take high and low color photos? In addition to giving you a better understanding of exposure, the colors of these photos also express different emotions:

High-profile photos look bright and light, feel simple and even have a sense of the future;

The low-key photos look heavy and steady, with a little sadness.

These photos feel more abstract, artistic and portrait-like.

In order to take high-profile and low-key photos, our goal is to average the photometric range and see how to decide the exposure in the following steps:

(1) First, set the camera to aperture priority mode and use the built-in exposure meter to measure light.

(2) Use evaluation or central key to measure light, and pay attention to the readings of aperture, shutter and ISO.

(3) For example, metering is at the aperture f/5.6, shutter 1/60s and ISO 200. Because it is an evaluation measurement, this is the preset reading of Zone 5.

(4) To take low-key photos, generally adjust the exposure first, and increase or decrease the exposure by 2 to 3 levels (adjust the aperture or shutter). For example, low-key photography requires an aperture of f/5.6 and a shutter of1/250 s.

(5) If necessary, adjust the camera to manual mode to complete the exposure calculation.

Third, the place to pay attention to when shooting

After deciding the subject, there are other places that need attention to make the photo more perfect.

1. Raw shooting is recommended.

You may not align yourself when calculating, so there is more room for retouching with Raw.

2. The difference between digital and movie.

When the camera metering calculation is uncertain, please choose darker numbers and brighter films, because it is easier for digital to remedy underexposed photos and film to remedy overexposed photos.

3. Soft light is easier to shoot.

The use of low-key photos determines the success or failure of low-key photos to some extent. Because most of the low-key photos use large side light and side backlight, which highlights a part of the subject's five senses and a part of obvious personality characteristics, people have a distinct impression at first sight. Because the subject is clearly defined and separated from the background, it shows the three-dimensional sense and texture of the subject. However, the use of large side light and side backlight increases the contrast between the white part of the subject and the background. Expose according to the bright part of the subject, even if you don't use black cloth and dark color as the background (of course, you can't use white tone as the background), you can sometimes achieve the ideal low-key photo effect.

4. The camera screen is not necessarily accurate

Sometimes photos will appear too bright or too dark in the camera, and more details will be found when viewed or printed in the computer.

5. Coordination between environment and discipline setting

Pay attention to the influence of spotlight. High-profile photos can be taken by the window with reflector, and low-profile photos can be taken in the dark corner of the room. The subject is set to the hue of the subject/object, which needs to be matched, such as clothing color and makeup.

6. Late stage

Post processing. Although the pictures taken by digital cameras are convenient for post-processing, they can't be divorced from the essence of photography, and can't be confused with computer painting and graphic production. Of course, the processing of the works to make up for the shortcomings of previous shooting can still be carried out appropriately. If the low-key photos are not expressive enough, Photoshop can be used to correct them. If you adjust the contrast and reduce the brightness, the lighting effect of the filter (point light effect) can help everyone achieve the ideal goal.

Finally, how to take a low-key photo this time is for me to let everyone learn more photography skills and try to take a low-key photo with your style without relying on post-retouching!

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