Color control of different white balances in tourism photography

Lead: You will encounter different scenery when traveling, so you need to shoot different scenery, so you use different white balance to control the color. Come and have a look with me!

Color control of different white balances in tourism photography (1) Film-like colors

Many people think that the photos taken by digital cameras are full of? Digital flavor? There is no film-like texture. What is this? I'm afraid there is no clear definition of movie flavor. But we can think from the characteristics of film: the common films are all sunlight, that is, they are shot with sunlight white balance. If it is in direct sunlight, the color must be more standard. However, at other color temperatures, there will be color cast problems. If you want the tone of the photo to be close to that of the film, it's a good idea to set the white balance to sunlight. Simple and rude? But an effective way. Here I want to explain the mystery of movie-like color control in more detail. More subtle white balance and color style control are the key points of free color control.

Sony A99, 70-400mm, F4-5.6G II, aperture priority, F5, 1/400s +0.3EV, ISO200, solar white balance, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Under the direct sunlight in the afternoon, the color of the light-receiving surface of the building is very positive, and the backlight surface presents a slightly lower saturation and brightness due to the texture of light, resulting in a three-dimensional effect. At this time, the camera is set to daylight white balance, and the color style is set to the bright mode of Sony A99. If you shoot with a reverse film, you can also get a basically close color representation. In fact, we adjust the white balance to approach the color direction of the film, and fine-tune the color style to approach the specific performance of a film. When shooting landscapes, we prefer the photos to be close to Fuji RVP50F and Kodak E 100VS, which are slightly different and exaggerate the colors of blue, green, red and orange.

Sony A7R, FE35mm, F2.8ZA, aperture priority, F7. 1, 1/400s, +0.3EV, ISO200, daylight white balance, Gaziantep, Turkey.

The white balance of sunlight can also be used to shoot humanistic themes in the sun, and accurate color reproduction can be obtained. When the high saturation in the landscape theme is not needed, the color style can be set to be a little milder, and the contrast and saturation should not be exaggerated, which is close to the performance of Fuji RDP III or Kodak E 100S.

Sony A7R, FE55mm, F 1.8ZA, aperture priority, F2.8, 1/250s, +0.3EV, ISO 100, daylight white balance, Istanbul, Turkey.

The same white balance of sunlight shows a completely different color trend in rainy weather, and the picture shows a cool tone. At this time, I am used to choosing a neutral color style, because it is always strange to be too bright in this light. At this time, the effect is the same as that of RDP III, E 100S and other solar films. This was taken at close range. From this perspective, the sunshine white balance is not only used in sunny days.

Sony A7R, VM50mm, F 1. 1, aperture priority, F 1.4,1125s, ISO 1600, automatic white balance, Urfa, Turkey.

Facing indoor light sources such as incandescent lamps, it is inevitable to shoot with sunlight because the color temperature of incandescent lamps is 2500-3000K, which is far lower than the white balance of sunlight of 5200K K.. But the warm color effect of the warm tone shown in the above picture is liked by everyone, but not the photographer!

Tips: white balance setting rules:

If the color temperature of the light source is higher than the value set by the white balance of the camera, it will be blue and blue, showing a cool tone.

If the color temperature of the light source is lower than the value set by the white balance of the camera, it will turn yellow and red, showing a warm tone.

Automatic white balance shooting, yellow.

In the later software, it was corrected to incandescent white balance and the color returned to normal.

It is easy to get warm tone effect when shooting in incandescent light with white balance, but it will look too yellow for the skin color of the characters. If the person in the photo is just a foil or very small, you can still use the white balance of sunlight to emphasize the atmosphere. If it is a subject with a large proportion of characters, it is best to correct the white balance to a certain extent. One is complete correction, such as using custom white balance or incandescent budget white balance, the skin color is completely normal, and the environment has no warm tone atmosphere; One is local correction, such as automatic white balance or K value setting. The skin color is normal, but slightly warmer, and the environment has a warm atmosphere.

(B) the acquisition of landscape color

The color control of scenery photos is still based on the white balance of sunlight, and then make some adjustments according to the actual light situation and your intention. Refer to the previous section for general settings. What should be reminded here is how to deal with some special situations.

Sony A99, 70-400mm, F4-5.6G II, aperture priority, F 1 1, 1/500s, +0.7EV, ISO200, daylight white balance, Nunavut, Canada.

The color temperature of light in high latitudes is higher, and the picture will be colder than that in conventional areas. You have two choices about this problem. One is to shoot with sunlight and white balance without any correction. At this time, the picture is slightly blue, and it will become bluer if you add shadows. Fortunately, this is also in line with the psychological feelings brought by the cold, and such photos are easily accepted by everyone; The second option is to use automatic white balance, custom white balance and other methods to obtain true color reproduction.

Sony A7R, 70-200mm, F2.8G, aperture priority, F 1 1 s, ISO 100, daylight white balance, Turkey.

The purple sky is full of fantastic colors. Many people mistakenly think that it is the color adjusted by later retouching. In fact, this color of the sky does exist in nature. Some people think they haven't seen it before. When I see the sky on the Turkish highway getting more and more beautiful, I intend to find a mosque as a foreground. As soon as I saw the minaret, I found the exit in two seconds, got off the highway and went straight to the high place next to the village to shoot it down. I still want to remind you: Please turn off the automatic white balance and turn on the daylight white balance mode. As long as the exposure is normal, most cameras can restore this purple color well. Some older digital cameras have some obstacles to the restoration of purple. At this time, you can turn on the white balance drift function on the basis of sunlight white balance, and slightly increase the color (M direction).

Sony A99, 16-35mm, F2.8ZA, aperture priority, F 16, 1/250s, ISO 200,9000k, white balance, Trinidad, Cuba.

When you have a deeper understanding of white balance and color temperature, you can start to think about making some bolder ideas. If the color of the light you see is not what you want, you can use white balance to change the overall tone of the picture. The above picture shows a sunset, but the actual light is not warm. Of course, we can wait until the color temperature is lower later. However, there is no guarantee that people's activities will repeat themselves, and it is not safe to go down the mountain through the slums in the dark. So I set the white balance to 9000K and shoot it directly at a time.

Sony A7R, 70-200mm, F2.8G, manual exposure, F8, 1/200s, ISO400, daylight white balance, Urfa, Turkey.

It is also difficult to control the white balance in snowy days. If it is not done well, it will look dirty or yellow. My suggestion is to try automatic white balance first, which often has unexpected effects. In recent years, the automatic white balance ability of various cameras is really improving.

(3) Beautiful people are like skin color.

Sometimes we also need to take some portrait photos to meet the beauty needs of our family and friends around us. If you want to get a beautiful complexion, you must first use aiming light. For example, girls are suitable for soft light. So cloudy days are very suitable for taking portraits. Exposure depends on skin color, clothes brightness and proportion, and can be based on+1EV, and then corrected after shooting. If the reflector is used for proper fill light, the skin color will be brighter. In order to get a whiter and healthier complexion, I will make appropriate corrections on the white balance, such as setting the white balance slightly lower than the normal color temperature and adding a little color to the white balance drift. The former is yellow and the latter is ruddy.

Sony A900, 135mm, F 1.8ZA, aperture priority, F2.5, 1/900s,+1.3EV, ISO200, 4800K M+ 1, Shanghai.

I set the color temperature about 200K lower than the light at that time, and added the color of 1 in the white balance drift. This kind of adjustment should not be excessive, and the environment should not change obviously, otherwise it will be false.

(d) Japanese small fresh colors are easy to learn.

Everyone likes this small fresh Japanese style, and many people imitate it. It is characterized by light and rich colors, weak contrast and low sharpness. Generally, it is slightly overexposed, which will be more perfect if it encounters light. Usually we choose clean and concise picture composition, which is suitable for portraits, sketches and so on. There are also some photos of small emotions.

Sony A55, 85mm, F2.8, manual exposure, F3.2, 1/320s, ISO 100, daylight white balance, Havana, Cuba.

Towards dusk, the sun began to warm up. At this time, you only need to use the white balance of the sun to shoot a faint yellow tone. The built-in setting is light mode, and the relatively low saturation and contrast are especially suitable for the performance of this scene.

Sony A900, 70-200mm, F2.8G, aperture priority, f1,1/250s, ISO200, automatic white balance, Vermont, USA.

Use the water vapor transpiration on the ground at sunrise and the Dindar phenomenon in the treetops to increase the atmosphere. Glare is not necessarily to be avoided, but sometimes it can set off an unexpected atmosphere.

(5) night scene color control

The light source of the night scene is complicated, and many people are confused about this scene. To maintain the atmosphere of the night scene, appropriate warmth is more in line with everyone's feelings. A simpler process is to shoot with daylight white balance. If you feel too yellow, you can switch to automatic white balance or a certain k value to reduce the tendency of yellowing.

Sony A7R, FE55mm, F 1.8ZA, F 1 1, 6s, aperture priority, ISO50, daylight white balance, Gitzo GT 1543T, Gangrenboqi NB-2B, Turkey Saffron City.

When night falls slowly, the ancient city is shrouded in a dark blue that will not be black. A few warm lights lit early add color psychological contrast to the picture. I set the white balance to daylight, set up a tripod and took this scene with a slow shutter. The balance between sunshine and white truly reproduces the feeling of the scene at that time.

Sony A7R, FE55mm, F 1.8ZA, aperture priority, F 1.8,1125s,-1EV, ISO 1600, daylight white balance.

It was even later that day, and I wandered in the alleys of the ancient city. At this time, the parameters are changed to large aperture and high ISO hand-held shooting, which is still sunshine white balance and strengthens the warm color atmosphere.

Fujifilm X 100, 23mm, F2, aperture priority, F2, 1/80s, -0.7EV, ISO3200, automatic white balance, Kyoto, Japan.

If you think the white balance of sunlight brings too much yellow to the picture, you can try shooting with automatic white balance. In view of the warm swallowing characteristics of automatic white balance, warm light will be neutralized, but it will not be completely removed, not bad!