Shooting skills of winter snow scene

Snow can calm all the buildings overnight, giving you a chance to walk into the center of the city and experience everything related to warmth or once. So what are the practical winter snow shooting skills? The following is the relevant content I have compiled. Let's have a look!

1, simple composition

If you are a street photographer or a minimalist photographer, then the snow scene is a great gift. It's pure white when it snows, so it's easy to take simple photos.

The picture is the work of Greek photographer Vassilis Tangoulis. When shooting a snow scene, he used an ND filter and a slow shutter. The snow scene in the picture is quiet and ethereal. If you are not careful, you will fall into meditation and blend in with the wonders of nature. Under his lens, it seems that the whole world has become quiet and peaceful. Simple composition, meticulous texture and dramatic atmosphere make people intoxicated. His black and white landscape works are simple and elegant, presenting us with a poetic white world.

Walking in the heavy snow and observing the subtle corners may be able to shoot a unique and beautiful snow scene.

Step 2 choose the right time

Photography is the art of exhausting light. In snowy days, the photos taken are more layered and aesthetic. When snow covers the earth, the sky and the earth are white. If you shoot in the early morning or evening on a sunny day, you can better show the texture of snow. If it is a village or a rime in a snowy scene, good light can better render the atmosphere.

The photo comes from the work of photographer Liu Shuner Niu on different Bashang grasslands in Ulan. Because of the light rendering, the snow scene at sunrise in the morning presents a faint rose color, and the photos are dreamy. The snow scene and trees under the backlight have become particularly dreamy and beautiful. Because of the light, the snow scene thus shot has a different contrast between cold and warm, and the visual effect is strong.

3, color contrast

Monotonous pure white is easy to cause visual fatigue after watching it for a long time. At this time, it is even more eye-catching to use contrasting colors to set off the snow scene. You can observe the still life around you in the snow and see the colors jumping out of it, among which the contrast of red is more touching in the snow scene.

The picture comes from Weibo, the Palace Museum. Today is the Forbidden City with heavy snow. Red walls and white snow are beautiful.

Red is a very good contrast color, which can highlight white snow. You can find this color to match when shooting, and realize that small scenes can also be brilliant and shoot more detailed things. However, it should be noted that when red appears in the picture, in order to give consideration to the presentation of snow color, it is very likely that the red color in the picture will be too partial, which may be purple or pink. So when we shoot in the early stage, we'd better use the RAW format, so that we can adjust the hue and saturation of red in the later stage.

4. Snow exposure

Accurate exposure is the primary factor in shooting snow scenes. We must first understand the characteristics of snow. Because there is specular reflection when snow is laid flat on the ground, the snow surface is characterized by high brightness, small contrast, high reflectivity, lack of layering and single tone. In this way, the scene taken by the camera is somewhat different from the real scene seen by the human eye.

If you directly point the camera or mobile phone at the snow scene, the picture will be very dark. At this time, you must make exposure compensation to get normal exposure. Generally speaking, if most areas of the picture are covered with snow, it is more appropriate to add 1-2 exposure compensation after photometry.

The picture shows the work of Chinese Canadian photographer Lin Zhao. Lin Zhao once wrote an article demonstrating that the principle of photometry is "white plus black minus", and when shooting snow, there are often two extremes. First, if the light ratio of the picture is equal, the photographer is afraid of overexposure, thus reducing the exposure compensation and darkening the picture; Secondly, if the light in the picture is relatively large, the photographer will misjudge the light in the dark, which will overexpose the snow in the picture. The most correct metering method is to find the brightest large area in the picture, spot metering, and then set the exposure compensation to +2.0. This can ensure that the brightest large area in the picture will not be overexposed to pure white, and other parts of the picture will appear according to their own colors and brightness.

In the extreme case of taking snow photos, in addition to photometry, some photographic accessories can be used to help shooting, the most important of which is polarizer. There will be strong polarization reflection on the surface of snow, and the polarizer can reduce the light ratio of the picture a lot.

5, snow protection equipment protection

When shooting in the snow, special attention should be paid to the moisture-proof and cold-resistant ability of the equipment. Simply wrapping your lens and equipment in plastic bags can achieve good results, and at the same time pay attention to the heat preservation of the battery. Low temperature makes the battery consume faster. When not shooting, take the battery down in time and put it in the pocket of clothes to keep warm, which can also effectively extend the service life of the battery. Of course, you can also prepare more batteries to prevent problems before they happen. When the battery is taken from a cold place to a warm place, it is easy to condense water vapor. You can seal the camera in a plastic bag in advance to prevent this phenomenon.

Finally, you can carry a soft cloth with you to clean the fuselage to avoid being affected by water vapor.

The picture shows the work of cultural photographer Kobayashi. He said that when the heavy snow has just fallen and everything has not been completely covered, it becomes very interesting to shoot at this time, especially when shooting in the wild. Because of the uneven position and surface, the rocks on the mountain often form an ever-changing picture composition. At this time, seize the opportunity and observe carefully, and you can often shoot landscape works with rich ink and wash landscape painting style, which are atmospheric, lyrical and artistic.

6, snow artistic conception photo

Finally, let's talk about our favorite snow portrait works. First of all, pay attention to the color matching of the model's clothes, and don't conflict with the white snow scene. In winter, you can use knitted hats, scarves and other small things to create a snowy atmosphere.

Pay attention to white balance. In the snow scene, due to the special environment, the automatic white balance of digital cameras is not very accurate, but manually trying to adjust the white balance can better restore the color of photos.

Snow scene, like rain scene, is highly reflective and bright. If you want to show the movement of snow, you can choose a slower shutter or a darker background, which can better make the picture layered.

The photo is taken from the work of photographer Swallow. Snow portraits have higher requirements for photographers. It is necessary to ensure the correct exposure of the characters' faces, but also to take into account the snow scene and shoot in the snow. If the characters are underexposed in order to adapt to the exposure in the snow in the early stage, then the characters can be partially brightened in the later stage. After the exposure is balanced, adjust the corresponding tones through curves, such as red on the red channel, green on the green channel, blue on the blue channel, yellow on the blue channel, etc. , so that the work can always be completed back and forth, and finally the usual portrait decoration work can be completed.