How to use natural light in landscape photography

1. Characteristics of natural light Landscape photography has always been a favorite subject of photography enthusiasts. Natural light plays an important role in landscape photography. There is a huge difference in light as the day progresses, from morning to night. Many landscape photographers like to shoot in the early morning before and after sunrise and at dusk. Not only do the lights and colors change at this time, but a golden scene often appears. In landscape photography, if you can make full use of the light effect of proportional light and dark, your work can produce attractive light and shadow interest, such as the shadows and projections produced by the natural light of the low slanting sun on grassy beaches, water surfaces and mountain tops, as well as the snow illuminated by natural light. The cold backlighting and long blue shadows that appear on the screen of these scenes can produce extremely moving photography masterpieces. 2. Several commonly used lights and their effects. Scenery photos taken with smooth light are clearer, with more light and less shadow, and the difference in shades of tones is relatively small. The scenery photos taken with this kind of light must be dull and lifeless. Side light has clear layers, giving the scenery a three-dimensional feel and rich tones. Side backlighting and backlighting can best express the texture, layered tones and depth of the scenery. At the same time, they can outline clear contours, making the front and rear backgrounds distinct and layered. Good at expressing space and atmosphere. Therefore, in addition to side lighting, it is best to use backlighting or side backlighting when taking landscape photos. Many photographers believe that the best natural light is just before sunrise or after sunset. At this moment, the sky shows light and soft colors, which is the most expressive natural light for landscape photography. Many photography enthusiasts like to choose sunny weather for shooting. They believe that sunny weather has good natural light conditions and it is easier to achieve successful shooting. Not entirely so. Cloudy, rainy, foggy, and snowy weather are often rare opportunities for photography. In rainy or foggy weather, or before sunrise or after sunset, when there is no sunlight, the light is scattered light. Some scenes showing the smoke of mountain villages and rural fields are actually taken on cloudy days, which is very atmospheric. It’s also very sentimental. 3. Lighting for shooting in rainy days. The characteristic of rainy days is that water produces reflection, and the scenery in the rain is highly reflective. When it rains, due to the diffusion of light, everything seems to have a different color than usual. This kind of light diffusion magically blends and dilutes the colors that often appear too bright in full sunlight. Especially when taking color photos, the umbrellas in people's hands often make the rainy scenery colorful because of their different colors. If you can use it wisely, Reflections in standing water add interest. If you want to take a picture of falling raindrops, you must choose a dark background, and it is more suitable to use side backlighting or backlighting. On rainy days, the light is darker and the exposure time is often longer. 4. Use light for foggy photography In nature, foggy scenes provide us with many beautiful and poetic pictures. Fog scenery is characterized by hazy scenery, exceptionally soft tones under natural light, rich layers, and a natural light-to-dark ratio. The effect of using backlighting to shoot foggy scenes in sunlight is more prominent, giving people a unique sense of spatial depth. The scenery in the fog changes quickly, so you need to be good at capturing the lens in the movement of light. Generally speaking, heavy fog often appears in the morning on sunny days. The sun is often obscured by the flowing fog, and the visibility is very low. It is not suitable to shoot at this time. Once the fog drifts and slowly disperses, this is the best time to shoot the scenery. Great opportunity, there is a way to take foggy scenes to look like a moonlit night. If you take black and white photos, you can add an orange or crimson filter. Its characteristic is that it can greatly deepen the blue sky and make the sun shine. Normal scenery to obtain the moonlit night effect commonly seen in infrared photography. When shooting, you also need to reduce a certain amount of exposure to make the film underexposed. Generally, you can reduce the aperture by one to two stops. When taking color photos, you can add a dark blue filter to give the scenery a night-time atmosphere. 5. Lighting for waterfall photography. Generally speaking, the setting sun or backlight is the most radiant and three-dimensional way to take waterfall photos. Especially, high-speed shutter speeds are used to take photos of waterfall water curtains or splashing water, which are full of vitality and vitality. . On the other hand, due to the flat light and lack of three-dimensional expression, the lighting effect of smooth light is relatively dull, so avoid using it unless absolutely necessary. 6. Lighting for karst cave photography. There are many karst caves in some tourist resorts in our country, as well as some natural caves and cave dwellings in northern Shaanxi. Natural light is generally illuminated or reflected at the entrance of the cave. Photographers can take very unique photos by taking advantage of the natural light at the entrance of the cave.