How to shoot large film with a camera

In order to help you make rapid progress on the road to becoming a great photographer, here are 10 tips that can make you take pictures like a professional without spending a lot of money on expensive equipment.

1. Warm your photos.

Do you find that sometimes the photos taken have a cold feeling? If the answer is yes, then you are not alone. The default white balance setting of DC is "Auto", which is applicable in most cases, but sometimes it makes the scenery too "cold".

When shooting outdoor scenery, especially in sunny days, try to adjust your white balance to "cloudy" level. Yes, it is the "cloudy" level. This change has the same effect as adding a warm color filter in front of the camera. It makes the red and yellow in the photo more full, thus making the photo warmer.

Try it if you don't believe me. Take two groups of photos outdoors with automatic white balance and cloudy white balance, and then compare them on the computer. I guess you'll like the one that looks warm.

Use sunglasses as polarizers

If you really want your photos to be influential, wear a polarizer. Polarizer is a necessary filter for every photographer. It can filter out glare and unexpected reflected light and make your photos more saturated, especially for the sky.

what did you say ? /Excuse me? You can't add filters to DC. Don't be disappointed, I have a unique trick that has been used on my stupid DC for many years. If you have a pair of sunglasses of acceptable quality, just take them off and put them in front of your lens. This is your polarizer. Haha, of course, keep them as close as possible to your DC lens, and don't block that.

For best results, aim any of your shoulders at the sun. When the light source forms a 90-degree angle with the subject, the polarization effect is the best.

3. Shiny style of outdoor portrait

An undiscovered function of digital cameras is forced flash or flash mode. By manually controlling the flash instead of letting DC decide when to flash or not, you have taken a key step on the road to creating great outdoor portrait photos.

In forced flash mode, the camera first exposes the background and then properly illuminates the person you want to shoot. The result is a professional-looking photo and everything looks so comfortable. In fact, wedding photographers have been using this technique (I used to wonder why they used flash in broad daylight).

When you use this technology, you can let your model stand on different light paths, such as measuring light or even backlighting, and you will take photos of the edge of your hair shining, so that your model will not squint because of the glare of the sun, and of course it will look more natural.

Remember, the built-in flash of most cameras is only 10 feet (3.05 meters) or lower, so you should never stand too far away from your model.

4. Crazy Macro Mode

Remember when you were a child, you found a whole new world in the grass under your feet? When you get close to the ground, you see a huge biological world that you have never seen before.

Nowadays, you may not want to stick your stomach on the grass in your backyard like that, but if you open close up and start exploring the micro-world in more detail, you will get huge rewards, that is, new content that you have never filmed.

Even the simplest objects will show charming new faces in macro mode. Best of all, DC is good at this.

Find the macro mode button, which often looks like a small flower. Press it to open the macro mode, and then get as close as possible to what you want to shoot within the scope of the camera. Once you have finished the composition, press the shutter halfway to adjust the focal length of the camera. After focusing, press the shutter to take a picture.

Remember that in macro mode, you will get a shallow depth of field (that is, the background is very blurred), so it is very important to adjust the focus to the object you want to shoot.

(Translator adds: Macro mode requires focal length. Generally, a camera with large zoom will fail in the macro mode of telephoto end. Please pay attention. )

5. A horizontal line that always hurts people.

For some mysterious reasons, most humans can't hold the camera flat when shooting with their DC with liquid crystal, which leads to the slanting sunset, the tilted horizon and the leaning tower of Pisa everywhere.

Part of the reason is that the camera lens will be distorted when imaging on LCD. The tree that you look upright will bend inward in the lens.

What should you do? First of all, remember that there is no one-size-fits-all method, but it can be improved by remembering some tips.

First of all, it is very important to realize that shooting as horizontally as possible. If the composition is difficult, try to keep the camera level, then gently rotate it horizontally by a slight angle and take another picture. Of course, you can also take more photos and compare these photos. Maybe one will make you feel right.

If you often practice the horizontal stroke technique, it will gradually become a habit, and then you will find that your scenery is by going up one flight of stairs.

6.MMC card

Buy a large enough memory card so that you won't miss the good photos because the card is full.

(Translator's Note: Nowadays, memory cards are called cheap. This is no longer a problem. )

7. Always use the highest resolution

Another important reason for buying a large memory card is that it allows you to use the maximum resolution of the camera.

Be sure to set it to the highest resolution, because if you accidentally take a great photo, you don't want to just share it with people on your computer.

(Translator's Note: I always set the photo quality to the highest and finest level. Although the photo size has greatly increased, as the author said, I certainly won't regret it. )

8. Mini tripod

I once occasionally heard some people say, "He must be a professional because he uses a tripod." Of course, using a tripod has nothing to do with your photography level, but this three-legged guy is really useful.

The problem is that the tripod is too heavy to carry.

This is good news for DC users. UltraPod II is a mini tripod that can be put in your pocket. It can be used alone or tied to something (such as a railing).

Needless to say, it's the first time I've seen such a good mini tripod. Search Taobao, yes, it's not expensive, but use "mini tripod" as the key word, not ultrapod. )

9. The fun of selfie mode

Now that you have a mini tripod in your hand, you can try another function that has not yet been developed: selfie mode. This function allows you to take pictures by pressing the shutter for a while (at most 10 second), which solves another problem that has been bothering people for many years.

Hey, don't think you don't want to appear in the group photo just because you are ugly. You can give the camera to a stranger and ask him for help. Of course, you have to take the risk that they are unreliable.

Self-portrait mode is an alternative. Fix the camera with a tripod, adjust various settings, press the shutter, and then quickly stand in your preset position, and it will be OK after a while.

The selfie mode is even more powerful! When you are exposed for a long time at night (such as strange photos with car light marks on the road), in order to avoid camera shake and blurred photos when you press the shutter, you can use self-timer mode to overcome this problem perfectly.

10. Running water under long-term exposure

No matter how wonderful my photos are, my family is ugly. But there is one exception. Recently, when my sister commented on a group of photos with the theme of water, she said that they were just like paintings. You know, this is a big compliment to me.

What she said is one of my favorite photos: slow-motion swatting. That is, shooting running water with a slow shutter creates a soft and dynamic feeling.

Put your camera on a tripod and force a slow exposure (such as 1 sec or longer) to get this picture-like flowing water curtain. (Canon PowerShot G2, aperture priority mode, f8, shutter speed 1 sec, polarizer, mini tripod)

Because of the long exposure time, a tripod is needed to keep it stable. Of course, you need to use the selfie mode, use the aperture priority mode, and then set the aperture to f8 or even smaller, which will give you a great depth of field and slow down the shutter.

Shoot running water in the shade, but the running water in the sun doesn't allow you to spend that long exposure time.

Another trick is to put your sunglasses in front of the camera. In addition to the polarizer, it can also block some sunlight, making it possible for you to get a longer exposure time.