How to shoot good scenery in rainy days

Lead: Jeremy Moore, our lover and top professional photographer, spent a whole day in the rainy north of Wales, learning how to take the most beautiful scenery photos even in bad weather.

How to shoot good scenery in rainy days Jeremy is a passionate landscape photographer. Engaged in photography for more than 30 years, and also has 15 years experience as a professional photographer. Jeremy, 55, lives in Arberry Sweets, Wales, and is very familiar with the beautiful scenery in Wales. He published a series of calendars and postcards with the theme of Wild Wales, which were well received in Wales.

After taking some photos by the lake in Xuedun National Park, professional photographer Jeremy gave John some advice on photography skills.

Control white balance

? John initially relied entirely on the camera's automatic white balance (AWB) setting. Jeremy said. This is no problem in most cases, but your digital camera can't judge correctly every time. To ensure the accurate color reproduction of photos, it is necessary to set the white balance according to the actual weather conditions, such as choosing cloudy mode on the day of shooting. Setting a special white balance mode can ensure that all your photos can maintain the same color temperature, which can reduce the time for you to adjust the color of photos in Photoshop. ?

Adjust ISO sensitivity

? Improve ISO sensitivity when shooting scenery with tripod? This sounds like a strange idea, but in windy weather like today, even with a tripod, the camera will shake a little. ? Jeremy said. Taking pictures with a slow shutter at this time may make your photos not sharp enough. In order to ensure the absolute clarity of the picture, I suggest increasing the sensitivity from 100 to 200. This can help you get a higher shutter speed, which can not only ensure the clear image of the photo, but also avoid obvious noise. ?

In addition to his favorite Quan Huafu Canon EOS 5D digital SLR body, Jeremy also used the following equipment to take first-class landscape photos:

Canon17-40mm f/4L USM lens

Canon 70-200mm f/4L USM lens

Canon EF 24- 105mm f/4L USM lens

Gitzo GT253 1EX carbon fiber 6X tripod

MagicBall pan/tilt

Valley-preserving polarizer

Singer-Ray Galen Lowell Square Gray Gradient Filter

Expert killer 1

Professional topographic map

Like all excellent professional landscape photographers, Jeremy takes a professional topographic map published by the British Topographic Survey (OS) with him when he goes out. ? The day before I go out to take photos, I will study the terrain of the destination carefully so as to have an overall concept of the local scenery. ? He said,? At the same time, you should also find the way to the shooting location or the path you can walk. I will find the best shooting location from the map, and choose the most beautiful peaks and canyons according to the rising and setting positions of the sun. ?

John's experience

? As the first attempt of the day, this photo is not bad! At that time, the wind was not strong, the lake was relatively calm, and the water surface was clear and transparent, rippling slightly. According to Jeremy's instructions, I left these big stones in the foreground, adding some interest to the picture. He also asked me to try vertical composition, whereas I used to shoot horizontally. The sky is gloomy and the light is very dark, which makes my photos look dull. Therefore, I improved the saturation and contrast in Photoshop to increase the visual impact. ?

Expert killer 2

MagicBall pan/tilt

The performance of a tripod depends largely on what kind of tripod head you have prepared for it, especially in landscape photography, because you often need to put the tripod on uneven ground and use the tripod head to ensure the stability of the camera. Jerermy said: I especially like MagicBall pan/tilt. It is fast and flexible to operate, and even in the ever-changing weather environment, it can guarantee not to miss any wonderful shooting opportunities. ?

John's suggestion

Triangular synthesis

? Jeremy explained to me how to use the dichotomy to create a composition. According to this method, I divide the picture of the lake, the earth and the sky into three parts, so that the whole picture looks balanced and more pleasing than the picture of half the earth and half the sky. ?

Jeremy's suggestion

Use manual mode for more precise control.

? Many beginners and amateurs like to shoot in full automatic program exposure (P) mode or semi-automatic aperture priority (Av) mode. Jeremy said. But in order to completely control the exposure, I will take pictures in manual mode. So I can set the aperture and shutter speed according to my desired performance, instead of letting the camera choose the correct exposure. This is especially important if you want to shoot the silhouette effect and colorful sky at sunrise or sunset. ?

Expert killer 3

Bubble height

? You can use the bubble level built in the tripod head to keep the picture level, but don't rely on those levels installed on the tripod legs, because they can only ensure the angle of the tripod, but they can't help you straighten the tripod head and camera, and the horizontal line of the final photo is likely to be crooked. ?

Rural scenery in Wales

Jeremy shared his three favorite Welsh landscapes with us. Xuedun National Park, Wright Village near Lake Dieners, Berdege? This is a wonderful scene taken near Snowden Peak in the early morning. After sunrise, the fog in the valley gradually rose, leaving only wisps of fog rising from the water. ?

Porthmadog in northwest Wales

? Moir -y-G e s t is a hill near Madog, Wales. Standing on the peak, you can look around 360 degrees. For example, this photo is facing the scenery of Peninsula Lake. ?

Lake Gwynant near the village of Lete in Verdegay.

? On this day, I gave up the opportunity to have tea with my friends in Lete Village, Verdegay, because I had a hunch that it would make me miss the scenery on Lake Gwennante. Finally, I came here and took this photo. ?

John's experience

? When I got to this position, the wind was already strong, so I increased the sensitivity to ISO200 according to Jeremy's suggestion, and suppressed the camera shake with a higher shutter speed. I installed the camera on a tripod, and the lens tilted slightly downward to reduce the proportion of the plain sky in the picture. This also allows me to attract the audience's attention to the valley below and the lakes and mountains in the distance with mossy stones and tall weeds. Similarly, when I was processing this photo, I also used Photoshop to improve the saturation and contrast of the picture to strengthen the green of moss and weeds. ? Xuedun National Park.

Expert killer 5

Camping RV

You need to make more efforts to take the best scenery photos. You often need to get to the shooting location before the sun rises, or wait in one place until the sun sets. In order to reduce the cost of staying in a hotel, Jeremy bought a camping RV specially. ? It allows me to travel freely around Britain and go directly to places where I can take my ideal photos. And as long as you walk a few steps, you can drink warm hot tea and have a warm bed for you to take a nap in the afternoon. ?

Expert killer 4

Medium gray gradient filter

The medium gray gradient lens is very suitable for the exposure of balanced pictures when the sky is pale. It can darken the bright sky while keeping the details of the foreground. Jeremy is good at using various filters flexibly. He confidently held the filter in front of the camera and adjusted the height of the filter as needed to keep the gradient line level with the horizon. Of course, if you are a novice filter, you'd better install the filter on the socket to improve the accuracy.

expert opinion/advice

Manual focusing in low light.

? At first, I asked John to take photos with autofocus, but as his confidence increased, I began to let him try to switch the lens to manual focus mode. This is especially practical in low light environment, because the autofocus system of the lens needs a bright target to complete focusing. ?

expert opinion/advice

Make good use of depth of field preview function

To get a successful landscape photo, you need to make sure that your settings can get the maximum depth of field, that is, make as many parts of the photo as possible clear from front to back. To see the range where the scene can be clearly imaged, you can use the depth of field preview button on the fuselage. When you look through the viewfinder, press the preview button of depth of field, and you will see the actual depth of field effect of the current aperture setting. You will find that when using a smaller aperture (such as f/ 16), most areas in the scene will be darkened. Don't worry, your last photo won't look like this. Never mind the dark picture. What you should pay attention to at this time is whether those elements in the background are clear. To find the difference, you can choose a larger aperture (such as f/5.6) and then press the preview key of depth of field. At this time, you will find that the viewfinder is not dimmed, but things in the background look blurred.

John's experience

? Jeremy told me that when the sun is shining but there is no wind, we can photograph the beautiful reflection of the mountain peak from the lake. Unfortunately, the sky was overcast on the day we filmed it. So when I took this photo, I simply chose to hold the camera vertically, taking rocks and reeds as the interest points in the foreground, and using the grass in the middle of the picture to guide the audience's eyes to the mountains in the background, while the distant peaks seemed to blend into the clouds. I cut some photos in Photoshop, removed some distracting stones at the bottom of the picture, cleaned the edges of the picture with the imitation stamp tool, and then turned it into a black and white effect. ?

expert opinion/advice

Convert to black and white to enhance the impact.

Our editor Peter travers showed John how to use Photoshop to convert his photos into black and white effects. This is an effective rescue measure for the landscape photos lacking bright colors in the plain sky, which can make a photo lacking bright spots glow with new vitality.

Start with color photos.

1, take a color photo and then convert it. First of all, Image >: Adjust the brightness/contrast window and tone/saturation window under the menu to increase the contrast and saturation of the photo respectively. We increased by 25% respectively.

Convert to black and white effect

2. We used the built-in black-and-white conversion tool in Photoshop. Also in image >: select black and white under the adjustment menu. We found that the green filter in the preset drop-down menu has the best performance because it can enhance the bright green in the landscape.

Adjust the tone and increase the sense of professionalism

3. In the black-and-white window, select the following hue, and then increase the hue to 233 and the saturation to 13% to create a more tasteful light blue hue. Finally, enhance the contrast of the picture again.

John's experience

? I want to incorporate all the skills Jeremy taught me today into this photo. I lowered the height of the camera to show as much grass and trees in the foreground as possible, and tried to build a curve from the lower right corner of the picture. I use Photoshop to increase the saturation, enhance the color of grass, and then convert it into monochrome effect to improve the overall contrast. ?

Jeremy's summary

? I think John succeeded in taking a very atmospheric picture of the scenery, especially in this poor light weather. His composition is very clever [1], and the large weeds by the lake can naturally attract people's attention from the left to the picture. I especially like those dead trees dotted with them. They look like guardians of nature, forming a very interesting picture [2]. John also melted into the beautiful mountains of Wales in the picture, and a bleak gray sky was compressed just right [3]. ?