Photography skills of cloud

Good clouds can add icing on the cake to the scenery and are also a good choice for us to shoot. The following are the photography skills of clouds that I shared. Let's have a look.

To understand clouds, we must first understand the weather.

365 days a year, with the alternation of seasons, the weather is constantly changing. If we can grasp the laws and characteristics of different weather, we can also grasp the best opportunity in the future shooting, so that the creation is more handy. Before picking up the camera, pay attention to the changes of climate and sunshine: look at the color of the sky in the morning and evening, the shape of dark clouds floating in the wind and rain, and the fish scale clouds when the weather is clear.

There is no inevitable rule for the appearance of clouds, but in the case of clear Wan Li, the probability of good clouds is higher. It is the color of the cloud that can be mastered. There are white clouds on sunny days, gray clouds on cloudy days and black clouds on rainy days. Yellow, orange, orange and even pink clouds have the opportunity to appear in the prime time of dusk, which really depends on luck. Blue sky and white clouds are of course the best partners, bringing life to the picture; Gray clouds don't mean it's hard to shoot, but they are more conducive to creating a mysterious atmosphere. Therefore, to shoot clouds well, we must first understand the relationship between weather and clouds.

Why did you see something different from what you took?

Sometimes, the clouds we see in our eyes are beautiful, but they are not good enough in the lens. This is actually a strange exposure. To shoot clouds well, you can pay attention to the following four skills:

Shoot dynamic clouds with a slow shutter!

(1) Consider using shutter priority mode.

Because the cloud is at infinity, the size of the aperture has little influence on the cloud, but the shutter speed has great influence on the shape of the cloud.

(2) Pay attention to the shutter speed

Because the clouds are floating all the time, the shutter speed you use determines the shape of the clouds. Use a slow shutter when shooting dynamic clouds and a high shutter when shooting static clouds. The former has the opportunity to slow down the shutter with a reducing mirror or a smaller aperture, otherwise the photo will be overexposed!

(C) the use of low brightness

The light intensity of the sky is low enough to shoot, and the simpler the picture, the more conspicuous the noise will be, so try to avoid it.

(4) using a polarizer (CPL)

Because there are a lot of ultraviolet rays in the sky, people can see them without looking at the camera. In order to make the sky bluer and the white clouds more prominent, you may wish to filter the light with a polarizer. (such as Stander CPL polarizer).

How to shoot contrasting clouds?

If you lay a good foundation, you can challenge the difficulty and shoot some clouds with backlight. These clouds often turn white without any details because of the fierce sunshine. In order to keep the details at the cloud level, you can pay attention to the following two points:

Use some foreground to make the photos more beautiful!

(A) the use of on-site measurement

Exposure value can be calculated by spot metering directly on the cloud, so that the details of the cloud can be preserved to the maximum extent.

(2) Use exposure compensation

The cloud has become dead white without details because of overexposure of photos, so if necessary, the exposure compensation can be reduced by half a level to one level (reducing EV value) to restore it to the level of cloud.