Techniques and methods of shooting waterscape

Techniques and methods of shooting waterscape

Water is the source of life, so how can we shoot beautiful water features? Here are some tips and methods for shooting waterscape. I hope you will like them!

First, choose rocks or trees to match.

When shooting ordinary rivers and lakes, whether it is to show local or panoramic effects, you should choose matching scenery. Usually, rocks, trees, branches and leaves near the water are good foil. It should be noted that the shooting methods of rivers and lakes are different, and there are two situations here.

First, for rivers, the emphasis is on lines, and the sense of river form in S-shape and diagonal direction is very strong. Under normal circumstances, trees, rocks and other scenery can occupy a large proportion as a foil, and trees and other large areas of the same scenery and colors can be used to strengthen the lines of rivers.

Camera: Pentax K 100D, aperture: f/4.5, shutter speed:1180s, sensitivity: ISO200, focal length: 43mm.

Anyone who has been to Kanas, Xinjiang, may take this classic photo. In fact, there are only two keys to shooting:

1. If you want to use a wide angle of less than 50mm, you can shoot an S-shaped curve, but the telephoto will not work.

2. Install a polarizer in front of the lens to eliminate some water reflection and improve the color saturation of the picture.

Secondly, because of the lakes and mountains, what is the focus of the performance? Face? For example, a mirror-like plane or a sparkling plane, so the scenery as a foil must not be too much, or the area is too large, and it is best to only occupy a small part of the picture, otherwise it will take the lead.

Set spot metering to measure the brightness of the sky. In order to avoid serious underexposure of waterscape, exposure compensation is improved.

Second, the use of waterfront lines to organize the picture

In most cases, we can't use aerial photography to show the panoramic view of the lake, so we can only shoot the part of the lake on the shore. A better composition method is to connect the lake, the lake shore and the distant scenery in series by using the lines of the lake shore. On the whole, the shoreline is mostly C-shaped. The lake occupies more than half of the picture, while the scenery of the sky and the shore occupies less than a small part of the picture.

Organizing the picture with coastline lines can not only connect most scenes in the scene in series to enhance the sense of order, but also guide the viewer's line of sight to extend to the depth of the picture and enhance the depth and space of the picture.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, aperture: f/9, shutter speed: 1/30s, sensitivity: ISO500, focal length: 28mm, exposure compensation: +2EV.

When shooting this lakeside line, it is best to shoot with a wide-angle lens to get a deeper sense of space. It should be noted that including the sky can enrich the content and light and dark levels of photos.

Third, how to shoot the beautiful reflection of the water?

In the scene with water, the real scenery and reflection are symmetrical, which accords with people's aesthetic feeling, and photos will give people a harmonious and natural aesthetic feeling.

To get a good reflection effect, you need some specific conditions:

1. In a windless scene, the water surface will be relatively calm, and only the mirror-like water surface can effectively reflect the scenery on the shore.

2. The scenery itself is best backlit, and it is difficult to produce a beautiful reflection in the sun. Under ideal lighting conditions, there will be a strong contrast between the sky and the real scene, and the image projected on the water surface will be clear and distinct.

3. The shooting position should be low. In other words, the angle between the camera orientation and the water surface is smaller. If the shooting angle is too high, there will be less reflection and it will appear very small; When shooting from a plane with a low viewing angle, the reflection will be large and complete.

4. The exposure should be accurate. Exposure should be based on scenery and reflection, that is to say, it is necessary to ensure the accurate exposure of real scenery and reflection.

5. Use a polarizer, but be careful. Because if used improperly, it will eliminate many reflections.

Camera: Canon EOS- 1Ds Mark III, aperture: f/22, shutter speed:115s, sensitivity: ISO200, focal length: 35mm.

Using a polarizer can eliminate a lot of reflection on the water surface, make the reflection clear and improve the color saturation of the picture. However, if the polarizer is used improperly, it may also eliminate part of the reflection, so it is impossible to take a complete reflection. So it is necessary to rotate the polarizer from multiple angles to find the best angle.

Fourth, the slow shutter creates a dreamy effect.

When shooting a moving object with a slow shutter, the trajectory of the scene will be recorded, forming a motion blur effect. Such photos are generally full of motion. In the same way, when shooting, you can use a slow shutter to shoot the trajectory of splashing water, which is as beautiful as silk.

The slow door presents a dynamic effect and a dreamy beauty.

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Camera: Nikon D3X, aperture: f/22, shutter speed: 0.62s, sensitivity: ISO 100, focal length: 26mm.

Observe the picture in advance, find some green plants and rocks for the water flow as a match, and enrich the picture level. Set the shutter priority or full manual shooting mode, and set the shutter speed to 0.5s ~ 10s to ensure the silky dynamic water flow effect.

Tips: If you want to get the slow gate effect when shooting waterfalls on sunny days, you may need to use a subtracter with medium gray level to reduce the exposure value.

Verb (abbreviation for verb) How to shoot a waterfall

Waterfall is a fast-flowing river, but its flow direction and surface color are different, because the relationship between spray and trajectory is different from that of ordinary rivers. There will also be two aspects of performance intention, the sense of direction of action and the texture of water flow. The sense of direction is mainly for composition; The texture of the water flow is expressed by the shutter, and the dynamic or static feeling of the water flow is expressed by adjusting the shutter speed.

For a general waterfall, if the shutter speed of the camera is set to be slower than115s, the dynamic feeling of the downward flow of the spray is very obvious. The slower the shutter speed, the sexier the line, that is, the stronger the sense of movement, just like white satin. If the shutter speed is above 1/60s, the spray and water flow of the waterfall will instantly condense, and still water droplets and liquefied water masses will appear on the screen, which are crystal clear or grotesque in shape and have a static aesthetic feeling.

Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ50, aperture: f/ 1 1, shutter speed: 1/2s, sensitivity: ISO 100, focal length: 7mm.

Setting the shutter priority or full manual shooting mode and setting the lowest sensitivity can ensure that the shutter speed is slow enough and the picture is delicate. Set the shutter speed to115s ~ 5s to ensure the silky dynamic water flow effect.

In addition, shooting waterfalls is not as simple as it looks, but the difficulty lies in the control of exposure. After water hits the rock, the splash is white, while the submerged rock is usually dark gray or even black, with a great contrast between black and white. That is to say, if the white splash is exposed normally, the rock may be underexposed, while if the rock is exposed normally, the splash may be overexposed. In view of this situation, we can refer to the technique of shooting stream, install a medium gray filter in front of the lens to increase the exposure time, but pay attention to ensure that the splash part is not overexposed.

Use a medium gray filter to ensure that the highlights of the water flow in the picture will not be overexposed when exposed for a long time.

Six, shooting a quiet lake

Although sometimes it seems that the lake in front of us is spectacular and vast, I hope the photographer will not try to show this, because under normal circumstances, the lake is difficult to stir up big waves and is very calm, so if a large area of water appears in the picture, it will be very boring. Photographers should look for materials on both sides of the lake, such as the ferry near the shooting point, the trees and mountains at the far end of the lake, which are all very good composition elements.

Of course, it doesn't mean that you should never photograph the calm lake when there is no wind. You can artificially create some special atmosphere, such as throwing a stone into the water to stir up local waves, while other areas are still calm. This picture is also very interesting; In addition, you can also use the calm of the lake to shoot the reflection of the sky or the scenery on the shore.

Camera: Nikon D90, aperture: f/ 13, shutter speed: 1/320s, sensitivity: ISO200, focal length: 40mm, exposure compensation: -0.3EV.

The appearance of characters on the lake makes the picture no longer empty and boring.

Adjust the visual angle, express the reflection of the trees on the shore with the calm lake surface, and create a kind of aesthetic feeling of virtual and real transformation.

Seven, highlight the contrast between light and shadow in the morning and evening.

In the early morning or evening, when the sun approaches the horizon, the light intensity drops greatly. Look for the angle of backlight or sidelight to shoot rivers, etc. The contrast between light and shadow is obvious, and the tone levels are rich. And because of the change of color temperature, the color of the scene becomes red and yellow, and the effect of this warm tone will be strengthened in the photo, giving people an overall warm feeling.

At this time, the messy details on the ground will be blocked by large shadow areas, while the water surface will form bright areas due to reflection, which will echo the brighter sky and contrast with the dark shadows, enriching the tone level of the photo screen.

Backlight shooting can enhance the contrast effect of light and shade on the water surface. In addition, manually set the color temperature of about 6500K to ensure that the picture can have richer warm colors (models without this function can set the shadow white balance mode). In fact, setting high color temperature shooting has another advantage. When the color shifts to red and yellow, some extremely dark areas will show some details, such as the bottom of this picture.

Camera: Nikon D300, aperture: f/7. 1, shutter speed: 1/250s, sensitivity: ISO200, focal length: 19mm.

Eight, the early morning water vapor transpiration on the river enhances the beauty of the picture.

Under normal weather, the temperature will drop at night until the next morning. But the water temperature drops slower than the air temperature, so in the morning, the water temperature is higher than that in the air, so the evaporated water vapor will condense into a large mist when it meets cold air.

This kind of water mist is a thin layer covering the water surface, but it is clean and transparent on the water mist, which will make the whole scene look like a fairyland and have a fantastic aesthetic feeling. It should be noted that when the temperature difference between day and night in spring and autumn is large, it is easier to capture this beautiful scenery. In Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and other places, the sun is very strong, and the temperature will drop sharply after sunset, which is easy to be seen by rivers.

Camera: Hasselblad 503CX, aperture: f/ 16, shutter speed: 4s, sensitivity: ISO50, focal length: 85mm.

Set the average metering, move the viewing angle to determine the framing range, so that the focus covers the morning fog near the plane. In order to obtain the hazy aesthetic feeling under low illumination, we can consider reducing the compensation by about 0.5EV.

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