Professional photographer talking about the night scene of the sea of clouds
Spring shadow scenery, the most hit is what the shadow cloud sea is, whether the shadow sunrise/sunset cloud sea or the shadow night scene cloud sea are equally attractive! But when you meet a sea of clouds, you don’t know what setting to use. If you don’t play basic skills well, it’s really “impossible to hold a good field”. It’s not worth it! That night, I saw a young man beside me constantly turning the setting. Some of them were too dark and some were too bright (I think he used ISO 12800 f2.8 1/40 and other settings), but he didn’t ask me, and I was afraid that actively teaching him would make him feel like I “played master” and threw my schoolbag, so I didn’t give him guidance at last! I hope he can learn from my experience and have a chance to read my article! The keynote statement is that this article is not suitable for old hands, and the masters should not read it! XD
ISO 100 f9 8 sec
First of all, there must be a sea of clouds at night. How can I know? The most accurate must be to ask friends who often “go out” to report information; If not, the only place to get information must be the observatory. To count astronomical knowledge, I dare not throw my schoolbag. I just look at two links:
https://www.hko.gov.hk/aviat/wxobs_decode.htm
This only depends on the height of the cloud. The lower the cloud, the greater the chance!
https://www.hko.gov.hk/out_photo/upper-air-weather_uc.htm
This is more important. Explain the chart briefly. It lists several high mountains in Hong Kong. The red line is the air temperature, and the blue line is the dew point temperature. If the blue and red lines overlap, it means that clouds or fog are formed there; The arrow on the right represents the wind speed, and the more tail represents the stronger wind; So if all the blue and red lines overlap, that is, all the mountains are in the clouds, and nothing can be seen!
In other words, as long as the distance between the blue and red lines in the picture is large, and the middle part overlaps, like a wide funnel, the chances are greater!
To sum up, warm, low wind speed, high humidity, inversion layer and other factors are favorable for the formation of cloud sea!
When all the data are favorable to the sea of clouds, when you decide to go out, you should first find the mountains, and shadow some places with many lights and colors to enrich the picture. So it is best to shadow the signature building on both sides of Victoria Harbour. When you decide the destination and find a favorable position, you should start to set the tripod, camera and shutter line. What is the best setting? There is nothing specific. The most important thing is to understand the general basic camera knowledge: the triangle relationship of ISO/shutter/aperture! Taking Weigang as an example, it is really very light. If there is a tripod, I would recommend using M mode, because Av mode can easily lead to wrong light measurement for a wide range of dark positions; In terms of setting, I usually use low ISO to remove shadows. I like it with less noise and wide color gamut/dynamic range; The aperture will shrink to the best range of the lens. Generally, the wide lens aperture is f2.8 to f22, so the best aperture is about f8-f14. The shutter will give you a reference according to what you want (don’t start wrong)
ISO 100, f9, 10 seconds
ISO200, f9, 5 seconds
ISO400, f9, 2.5 seconds
Eh, the lower the ISO, the better? But why use a higher ISO sometimes?
If the combination of ISO 100 and 10 seconds is used, the flow of the sea of clouds can be reflected by a long exposure, which is similar to the flow of the shadow, and it will have a slight and slippery feeling; But if the wind level or the tripod is unstable, there is a chance to make the photo unsharp. The longer the time, the greater the chance of the photo to be relaxed!
If the combination of ISO200 and 5 seconds is used, the time is shorter, which can reduce the non-sharp caused by the wind or slight vibration of the tripod. I usually use this setting myself
If the combination above ISO400 is used, the shorter the time is, you can freeze some of the moments you want, such as the laser of Fantasy Yongxiang River
Setting is complete
ISO 200 f9 5 sec
ISO 100 f9 10 sec
ISO 320 f9 2.5 sec
ISO 320 f9 2.5 sec
Since the beginning of the digital era, I have tried to recommend friends to take pictures of RAW. Although the files will be large, it is an ironclad fact that there are more details to be saved and it is easy to make later!
When you shadow the night scene, you will find it difficult to control the light and dark. Because of its large contrast, there are many positions of big black and big white, so the shadow RAW is a good choice!
The explanation is simple. This time, I will introduce some very practical functions of Lightroom to you:
1．善用Hightlight & Shadow
First import all the photos to Lightroom, and then click Develop to start simple execution. What about never? Let’s take a look at the big column on the right: many items. It doesn’t matter. We will only adjust a few this time.
LR layout
Basic
Temp: color temperature, namely K number, is used to adjust the white balance
Tint: Color is used to adjust the White balance with Temp, but I rarely use it
Highlights: highlight, turn it to a negative number to help show the details of highlights
Shadows: Shadows. Adjust it to a positive number to help show the details of shadows
Clarity: Clarity, turn it to a positive number to make the picture look clearer (but not too much)
Vibrance: Brightness is similar to saturation, but it is not easy to over colour!
2. Make good use of Dehaze defogging function
This key is at the bottom of the right column. There is basically nothing to say about it. It is the function of “one click is right”.
Effects
The above functions are very simple and easy to use. Just press and hold your heart water to adjust it!
Comparison of completed drawings
In the original image on the left, the red dot is the place where the highlights and details are lost. In the finished image on the right, all the details are preserved and the colors are richer.
