9 photography tips for photographers
To improve the image quality, it may cost tens of thousands of yuan to replace full frame cameras, various professional lenses, etc. He thinks that buying equipment can help improve technology, but the so-called “theory is death, photography is life” to improve the level of photography, many skills should be learned and used flexibly, and the excellent photos can be taken only by accumulating experience and understanding on-the-spot judgment. If a novice wants to improve his photography skills, simply changing the camera and changing the mirror can not improve much, nor can he give full play to the advantages of the camera lens. The real progress is to start to understand how to use some subtle and advanced photography tips. The following arePhotographerThe nine photography tips you have personally experienced and suggested may not be suitable for everything, but you can guarantee that the technology will be used when it comes!
Change ISO value with environment
In the Golden Triangle of photography, aperture, shutter and ISO are closely related. Many novices tend to care about the shutter and aperture value when taking photos. Many people ignore the importance of ISO. Some even just use automatic ISO, or mistakenly think that only low light environments need to adjust the ISO value. In the film era, the ISO value is determined by the negative. For example, a cylinder of ISO 400 negative will be taken with ISO 400 for all photos. However, in the era of digital cameras, most cameras can change the ISO value at will according to the light intensity. Just because the ISO value can be changed at will, photographers should make more use of the ISO value. Instead of setting the ISO value to the camera’s automatic adjustment, they should manually adjust it to different values in different places.
In a word, when the shutter and aperture remain unchanged and the ISO value is low, the sensitivity will be reduced, and the whole picture will be dark; The higher the ISO value is, the higher the sensitivity will be, and the brighter the photo will be. But the higher the ISO is turned on, the more noise will be, which may affect the image of the photo. For example, when shooting a landscape on a sunny day, we can lower the ISO values such as ISO 100 and ISO 200; On the contrary, in the indoor environment with insufficient light, ISO may be adjusted to ISO 800, ISO 1600 or higher; When taking a starry sky photo, due to the dark environment, the ISO may need to be adjusted to a higher value. Some high-order digital SLR cameras can reach ISO 51200 and ISO 102400, but such a high ISO is not used for general photography, and there are too many noise points, the quality of the photo will be greatly reduced. Due to the fine design of modern digital cameras, ISO is no longer simply increasing by 100, 200 and 400 levels. Photographers can even use 1/3 and 1/2 levels to fine tune ISO. However, when viewing photos generally, if the two photos differ by only 1/3 of the ISO value, the photo difference is not obvious. Instead of spending more time adjusting the ISO, try adjusting the ISO value at level 1 to save shooting time. For example, if you want to raise the ISO, you can adjust it directly from ISO100 to ISO200, 400, 800, 1600 or 3200, and you don’t need to spend time adjusting every 1/3 level.
Take three pictures in succession to confirm the focus
Just imagine that if you take an important group photo for the guests, such as wedding and graduation ceremony, in case of shaking hands, losing focus and someone blinking in the group photo, your photo is likely to disillusion the guests. Of course, this situation may be a bit serious, but it is easy for photographers to ignore it. They even found it when they returned home. At that time, it was impossible to remedy it. “Wait, take more pictures!” In order to reduce this man-made risk, manyPhotographerWhen shooting the same still picture, two or three more pictures will be taken to supplement it. Many times, static objects such as plants, buildings, even portrait photography, or the big group photo just mentioned will appear.
Photography is nothing more than patience, and it costs almost nothing to take and delete photos with modern digital cameras (regardless of the time cost). Why not spend a little more time to take one or two more backup photos in exchange for double protection! When shooting three pictures in a row, the hand-held camera may not be stable enough. In an environment with few light sources, you need to slow down the shutter to shoot. No matter how many pictures you take, your hands shake. Therefore, it is recommended to use tripods to shoot more. The tripod can help photographers reduce or even eliminate the problem of shaking hands, and it will not change the composition position. Even if the shooting is stable with different handholds, slight deviation will occur when zooming in. In addition, hand-held shooting is easy to shift the focus, especially before large aperture shooting, and the main body will disappear in the clear part if you are not careful. Therefore, use a tripod to choose the focus and shoot three pictures to ensure that the main body is free of all kinds of human problems.
On the spot decisions are also important
Of course, even if you don’t have a tripod, there are many ways to reduce vibration and prevent focus loss. For example, you can place the camera on a smooth surface, but remember to pay attention to whether it can support the weight of the camera before placing it; In addition, set the self adjusting focus in the camera. As long as the main body is in the focus, half pressing the shutter can ensure accurate focusing! One more time. Whether there is a tripod or not, remember to take several pictures in succession, and then zoom in to see if there are any problems before continuing to shoot.
Shoot wide
In recent years, the specifications of digital cameras are getting higher and higher. Even if you zoom in ten times to see a small corner of the picture, the image is still very sharp. Of course, this may involve the quality of the lens. But there is no denying that cutting out a corner will still get good image quality. Therefore, many photographers now use the focus segment more widely than the normal composition when shooting, because they want to take the most pictures in the limited space to avoid missing shots of the surrounding scenery during post production. For example, ordinary photographers take a picture with 24mm, and the photographer will take it with 18mm, and then cut it to 24mm in the camera or post production, or other appropriate composition, which can reshape the photo style. In addition, in recent years, the camera pixel is very high, and only in the camera or post production software can it be cut to a suitable composition, which will not affect the imaging too much. If you want to improve your photography skills, you can’t always remain the same.
In addition to using more wide-angle shooting, different levels of shooting the same subject will have different effects and styles. The shooting habit of many photographers is to shoot from the perspective of the eyes, which is often referred to as the horizontal perspective. It is convenient to shoot from the horizontal perspective just by standing in place. However, if the building has no too many features, it is not easy to resonate or shock others. Try to shoot the same subject from different angles with an overhead or an overhead camera. Upward facing shooting is from bottom to top, which makes people feel solemn, serious and great; On the contrary, if you shoot from top to bottom, the image will give you a broad and macroscopic feeling. Moreover, flexible use of wide-angle lens and appropriate deformation can bring shocking visual effects. Try to use wide-angle lens more often, and shooting from different angles can make your photos no longer monotonous, and more likely to resonate with others.
▲ There are many sundries on the right side of the photo before cutting, which may affect the appearance of the photo. The image will not be greatly affected by the re composition through the cropping function.
Rear lens deformation
Although deformation can increase the visual effect, it is not always required. You can solve the problem of photo deformation in the post production program. Photoshop and Lightroom have different lens data stored. As long as you take the RAW file, the lens correction function can automatically correct the deformation, which is very convenient.
Look more at the exposure distribution of the histogram
Each person’s eye structure is different, and the screen structure and camera settings are different. In addition, the environmental light source is different, so it is impossible to judge whether a picture is accurate in light measurement and exposure with the naked eye. The “final judge” is the histogram to determine whether a photograph is overexposed or not, and whether the metering meets expectations. The histogram will not be affected by camera screen differences and real light, providing the most realistic photo exposure metering data. For beginners, the “mountain” in the histogram will not understand its meaning. In fact, the left side of the mountain represents a shadow; The right side represents the bright part. If the photo is exposed correctly, most of the data will be concentrated in the central part, just like a hill; If the “peak” is tilted to the left, it means that the exposure is insufficient, and the whole picture will be dark; If the “peak” is to the right, it means overexposure, and the whole picture will be brighter.
However, photographers should not completely rely on histogram, which is always an objective reference indicator, as to whether the exposure of our daily photography is appropriate. However, to know how to improve shooting skills, you need to know the temporary strain. Sometimes it is not necessary to adjust the exposure value completely following the histogram. When shooting some subjects with high light contrast, such as sunsets and night scenes, the histogram may move to a certain side. However, because overexposure or underexposure is very important to form the photo atmosphere, it is necessary to take RAW files in these cases and adjust them to the most appropriate exposure value in the post production software.
Histograms also have limitations
The histogram in the camera only displays JPEG results, but fails to reflect RAW file data, so JPEG overexposure may be seen in the camera histogram, but RAW file has no effect. You don’t need to look at the histogram after taking every picture. You can check every time you change the composition to ensure that the exposure is correct before you shoot.
▲ Pay attention to histogram data regularly during shooting to ensure normal exposure or meet personal needs.
HDR is really a good thing?
HDR combines single or multiple photos with different exposures to present shadow and light details at the same time. HDR provides a larger control range than the contrast fine adjustment function, and can restore the details of the scene. However, many photographers nowadays create HDR effects with extremely strong contrast and exaggerated tones. As a result, the whole scene is “protected” by white light, which is different from the original intention of restoring the scene. Therefore, people should pay more attention to whether the photos will be distorted when using HDR.
▲ Excessive use of HDR will distort the image and greatly reduce the image perception.
Flexible use of contrast fine adjustment function
It is not easy to take photos with natural light and dark details due to different light difference ranges of human eyes and cameras. However, in recent years, many cameras have built-in light dark contrast fine-tuning function, such as Nikon’s D-Lighting and Canon’s highlight tone priority. The function is mainly used to deal with shadows and bright details. Through the built-in software repair, highlights and dark bits can display more details, making the whole photo look more natural. However, don’t misunderstand that the contrast fine-tuning function can completely repair the details. After all, it is just fine-tuning. It is better to adjust the aperture, shutter, ISO and other settings before shooting, and then use RAW file to edit the photos later.
However, in a scene where the light contrast is too strong, such as sunrise and sunset, this function may need to be turned off, because the camera will use contrast fine-tuning to lighten the shadows as much as possible, but noise is likely to occur, and the bright parts still cannot be dimmed, so the photo will look strange; The strength of the fine adjustment function can be adjusted in the camera, and the amplitude should also change with the environment. Over adjustment will even reduce the image of the photo.
Use different filters
When shooting different photography themes, install suitable filters according to the environment, which will produce different image effects. The common ones on the market are UV filter, polarizer (C-PL), gradient gray filter (GND) and dimmer (ND).
UV filters are the first and most frequently used by novices. The lens is fully transparent and can generally filter UV filters. Some are made of glass only, which is used to protect the lens. Usually, photographers will install it in front of the lens for a long time to provide more protection for the lens. As for the polarizer, simply speaking, it can increase the color saturation and also remove the reflection. GND is a lens with a transparent coating gradually changing to gray. The gray part can block part of the light, which means that the whole picture will have different exposure values at the same time. GND is suitable for use in places with large light difference, such as landscape photography, where the light and dark contrast between the ground and the sky is large. Put it in gray at the bright part, so that the camera can absorb less light from the bright part, and the photo details will be presented without overexposure, reducing post production work. ND dimmer is to reduce the light entering the camera, so as to shoot with a slower shutter. For example, shooting a river requires a slow shutter to create a silk effect, because sometimes it may not be slow enough to reduce the aperture and ISO; Or when shooting a portrait, open the aperture wide, but no matter how fast the shutter is, it may not be able to expose normally, so using a dimmer lens can avoid overexposure. The author once accidentally dropped a lens on the ground. As a result, the filter glass was broken, and the lens was still intact. Finally, the lens was taken to the factory for inspection, to clean up the broken glass, and to confirm that there was no problem with the rubbing, and then it could be taken for photos. Many times when you buy a lens, the shop assistant will ask you to equip it with a filter, but many novices will think it is expensive and will not add it. Even if it is equipped, they do not understand the purpose. If the lens at the front end of the lens is accidentally scratched, it will not only cause heartache, but also require expensive maintenance, and may even lead to a lack of skills. A high-quality filter will make your shooting effect better, and it can last for ten or eight years. So if you have enough budget, it’s better to spend more money to buy a high-quality filter to protect your lens and improve the quality of your photos!
▲ After adding the ND dimmer, the slow shutter can also take the effect of slow flowing water in daylight.
Pay attention to the dark corner of the photo
Dark angle refers to the phenomenon of “loss of light” at four corners of the image edge, which makes the edge of the picture dark. The most common dark angle is when the zoom lens is fully opened, or when shooting with a large aperture at the wide-angle end. This is a natural design defect of the lens. The image projected by the lens will become darker and darker as it gets closer to the edge. The four corners of the image lose light. From the film era to the digital era, the optical engineers who designed the lens constantly improved the lens design, hoping to minimize the appearance of dark corners. A few advanced lenses claim that there is no dark angle with full aperture, but for ordinary lenses, the problem of dark angle will be greatly reduced as long as the aperture is reduced by one level. When shooting landscapes or portraits, the dark angle of the lens will affect the image perception in many cases. Many cameras have built-in lens correction function when shooting JPEG files to eliminate the dark angle, but the effect is limited. It is inevitable that a small amount of light loss will occur when shooting with a large aperture. Therefore, it is recommended that you shoot RAW files, and you can adjust the dark angle amplitude by yourself in the post production software. If you don’t want to narrow the aperture and lose the shallow depth of field effect, but want to solve the problem of dark corners, you can “break out” to shoot full RAW files, and then solve the problem in the post production.
Night shot obscuring viewfinder and opening reflector pre lifting
The lens design of the camera is very precise. As long as there is space for light to enter the camera, the exposure will be biased. In order to completely prevent the extra light from affecting the image of the photo, the photographer will shield the camera viewfinder during night photography or long exposure shooting to reduce the entry of external light. As early as the film age, this kind of shooting technique has appeared, which is equally important in modern times. Some advanced cameras now have a built-in viewfinder masking function. If the digital SLR camera on hand does not have this function, you can use an ordinary black cloth or a special mask to mask it. If you want the picture to be sharp after long exposure, you can use the “Mirror Lock” function. Newbies often ignore this function, but its importance is no less than using a tripod. When you press the shutter for the first time, the camera will only raise the reflector and will not shoot. You need to press the shutter again to shoot officially. This method helps avoid raising the reflector when the camera opens the shutter for exposure, which makes the camera shake and the picture blurry. However, please note that the viewfinder will not see the scene after raising the reflector, so you need to complete the composition and shooting settings before pressing the first shutter. Each camera’s reflector has a different pre lift function, and higher level cameras will be on the top control circle; Advanced cameras may be stored in the menu, so you must know the “Mup” setting position before shooting. However, some entry-level cameras do not have this function. You can use the real-time viewfinder function to get the same effect as the pre lift reflector after opening.
Flexible use of two auto focus modes
There are many focusing methods for digital cameras, such as AF-A, AF-S, AF-C and MF for Nikon; Canon also has three modes: One Shot, AI Focus, AI Servo, and MF, but many novices are often confused. Knowing how to use different focusing methods in various situations is very helpful for taking clear images. The author most often uses AF-S and One Shot, which represent single point focusing. For example, when shooting a static object or a landscape, select the subject and press the shutter to focus. The camera will lock the focusing distance and also give a “beep”, which represents successful focusing. The main body of the photo will be clear, and other scenes will become blurred, highlighting the theme successfully. As for AF-C and AI Servo, after the user starts focusing, the camera system will continuously drive the lens to focus until the shutter is released. Note that the camera will not beep after focusing, because the focus may be shifted at the next moment. This focusing method is very useful when shooting dynamic things, such as animals and racing cars, because it takes too much time to focus on a single point, and it is not enough time to change the focus. The main body moves in the picture by using the surrounding tracking method, so that the main body will not lose focus.
