Seeking the basic skills of landscape photography

Still life photography can be regarded as a skill or creative exercise, thus improving the understanding of composition and lighting. Like a painter, a photographer may convey his imagination of color, shape, tone, texture and composition through still life photos.

Still life arrangement

Still life can be a physical object or a group of physical objects, which can usually be arranged like a general theme. Since still life is lifeless, you should concentrate them as much as possible for lighting and composition. It is worthwhile to arrange your own still life, because you have complete control over the choice and arrangement of objects. It is suggested that you practice from one object first, and then gradually develop to compose pictures of different interrelated objects. You don't have to deliberately choose the object to use, but you should conform to a theme, such as the physical objects in a certain place or period. The key is to collect as many subjects as possible. Collect all the things you want to show, and then put them on the table next to you when shooting, so that you can carefully compose one by one.

Natural still life

This kind of still life picture naturally exists around you, and the photos of natural still life can actually illustrate your ability to find the ideal picture in your daily life. For example, a pile of items in the shop window, because of their clever arrangement as a whole, or their strange varieties, make you linger. From driftwood on the beach to a pile of fallen apples, there are countless such still lives in nature.

food

Simple objects such as fresh vegetables and exotic fruits not only give people a sense of beauty, but also present rich colors and textures that other natural objects do not have. Food photography is a hot topic in commercial photography, and professional photographers can also use special shooting skills to beautify the appearance of food.

Still life arrangement

The equipment listed here can constitute an ideal equipment for still life photography. A diffuse lamp is enough to provide comprehensive illumination, so all shadows will be inclined in the same direction. Ideally, this flash should be equipped with a soft box diffuser to soften the light, so that you can see the shadow surplus. In addition, you need a reflector to reflect the light to the shadow and improve the overall lighting.

Equipment and equipment

6×6 cm camera

packing film

A series of standard wide-angle and telephoto lenses

adjustable tripod

Cable release device

flashlight

Soft box diffuser

power unit

Outdoor still life

The main advantage of outdoor shooting is that the background and environment you need are under your control. Indoor, the surrounding area is relatively crowded and messy, and decorations may be contested by the subject. In outdoor photography, we can find an ideal environment in a wider space and play a positive role in shooting.

Natural light photography

The disadvantage of shooting still life outdoors is that it limits and weakens your control over the lighting. When shooting indoors, you can set a flash and a reflector at will, and you can reflect the light from the wall and ceiling. However, outdoors, you have to rely on natural light-either direct sunlight or cloudy sky light, which is more acceptable. Of course, you can use the reflector to affect the lighting quality, change the direction of light irradiation, illuminate the shadow on the subject and reduce the contrast. In addition, you can also use a flash to enhance the lighting effect.

Screen layout: still life photos of vegetables

Vegetables are placed in a wooden tray in front of the red brick wall. Because vegetables are irradiated by scattered light in foggy days, there is no direct sunlight, and the light reflected by the surrounding hard surface increases by about 1, thus ensuring uniform exposure.

Fruit placement

For example, this picture consists of colorful fruits in a glass vase. You can create still life photography with only one kind of food.

Still life photos of vegetables

In this very harmonious picture, the outline, shape, texture and color of vegetables have been carefully considered and fully reflected. Because of the reflected light on the surface of eggplant and onion, it is more suitable to shoot with diffuse light than with direct light.

Draw lessons from art

This vivid rural photo is quite artistic in19th century watercolor painting. Although this scene looks almost natural, quail eggs are actually bought and put in an artificial nest.

Picture Layout: Spring Still Life Composition

In order to successfully take still life photos, you must establish some connections between the objects used in the pictures. This connection may become the theme of the picture-the items on this page have the characteristics of rural life, and they were found on the shelf of a farmhouse.

image plane composition

Most still life paintings are gradually formed. First, start with the most important items, observe them through the camera, and then adjust the position until you are satisfied. Then add a second item to check the image through the viewfinder. Using this method, you can arrange and arrange the pictures one by one, and make local adjustments until you get satisfactory results.

Start with a wooden storage bucket.

Place a blue bottle for balance.

A faded lamp adds character to the painting.

Add an old copper pot and the picture will be stable.

The iron line blue filled with eggs adds a warm hue.

Still life after completion

Finally, add a small mallet, which is arranged to avoid the gap that leads the line of sight to the bottom. At the same time, the mallet once again adds the warm tone composition and wood texture of the storage barrel that is slightly eclipsed.

Still life analysis

Objects used to take still life photos should have the characteristics of shape, color, shape and texture. When you begin to notice these characteristics and their internal relations, your creative vision will be infinitely expanded.

Balance and coordination

Creative still life composition is to know when it is perfect. Perfect composition always pays attention to balance and coordination. Themes should be organically combined to highlight key points, not weaken them. Creating a balanced still life composition is an instinctive behavior, and you don't realize it when your eyes turn from one object to the next. Because each object should have the characteristics of adding interest to the next object.

Shapes and patterns

In this still life photo, the fork rake and shovel handle lean against the fence, and their repeated shapes produce a moving pattern.

Triangular combination

A pile of bottles gradually forms the apex of a triangle, which is a traditional composition shape. The bottle at the back plays the role of visual stability, and the similar shape and texture of all bottles bring harmony to the image.

Concise combination

The attraction of this concise still life photo lies in the clear details of two wooden objects and their vivid images.

Layout and balance

Although these bottles seem to be randomly arranged on the shelf, they have actually been carefully arranged so that the densest objects fall in the center of the picture.

Still life full of machines

Run out of still life

To a great extent, the use of still life depends on the various components of the picture, as well as the transparency, firmness and color saturation they will present in the final photo. Generally speaking, soft front lighting has the effect of beautifying the shape and is easy to show two-dimensional space. Comparatively speaking, sidelight is beneficial to highlight the surface features of the subject, but shadow projection may cover up the surface details of the subject.

Strong light illumination and weak light illumination

Intense illumination formed by aiming many intense rays at the subject will reduce the "visual weight" of each component of the subject, and will also weaken the color saturation and fade the tone. On the contrary, the weak light illumination formed by limiting the amount of light irradiated on the subject will make the subject appear calmer and the color will become deeper and more saturated. By using auxiliary lights, reflectors and diffusers for lighting, various subtle or dramatic effects can be obtained.

Shape and modeling

Diffuse side light and reflector can also reflect some light to highlight the shape and modeling of still life, thus producing subtle tone levels.

Picture layout: directional light

Put a white board with a certain texture right behind the bottle to form a visually interesting background. A single flash lamp equipped with a soft box diffuser is installed on one side of the glass bottle and tilted slightly downward for lighting. On the other side of the bottle, a reflector reflects part of the light, which can reduce the exposure difference between the two sides of the object.

The change of light

In the group photo composed of three photos, the plate with a certain texture directly behind the glass bottle is removed, leaving the white wall behind the scene as the current background. Then, at each shooting, the light output of the flash gradually increases to produce three faded images.

Color saturation

On the darkest image in the group photo, you will soon find that the glass is calmer than on the brighter image. Please also note that as the image darkens, the red stopper on the right bottle becomes darker and more saturated.

Picture layout: transmitted light

The flash lamp is aimed directly at the white background behind the glass bottle, producing separate transmitted light illumination. Therefore, the shape and outline of the bottle become the main components of the picture.

Backlighting

After irradiation from the back, the surface features of the glass bottle disappear. But there are black lines on each bottle. At this point, the red plug almost turns black.

mixed lighting

The tungsten lamp lit at the camera position provides a soft front light for the glass bottle. Although the backlight is dominant, part of the shape of the bottle has been restored.

Still life theme

Shooting with inanimate objects gives you time to choose the right subject, find the ideal background, skillfully distribute the light when using the flash, and make subtle composition adjustments. All these things can be done at your own pace without worrying about the comfort and ease of use of the model.

Select element

When shooting still life, we should look for some aspects that can unify the content of the picture, which can be texture, function, color, modeling and age. At the same time, proper background and lighting are also important. In these photos, the high-profile picture (light tone) is illuminated by bright reflected light, and the low-profile picture (dark tone) is illuminated by sunlight and auxiliary flash.

Light color picture

Although the picture is basically composed of white, the color changes are still rich enough to distinguish the enamel pot from the surrounding environment, and the black border plays a role in balance and contrast.

Screen layout: high-profile still life

As far as this concise still life exercise is concerned, the color characteristics and reflection characteristics of the subject determine the lighting used. In order to obtain the desired high-profile effect, a wide-angle flash lamp is aimed at the ceiling to generate a wide range of indirect reflected light, while another lamp is aimed at the white lacquer board on the left side of the subject for reflective lighting.

Expert advice:

Almost all still life photography needs a tripod, and the viewfinder is used to check the changes of light and composition.

For high-pitched still life, sufficient lighting should be provided so that there is only a light blocking difference between the bright area and the deepest shadow.

The hand-held flash gun can manually control the flash during long exposure without keeping pace with the shutter speed.

Screen layout: low-key still life

Because the kitchen lacks sufficient natural light, this ancient kettle and stove need auxiliary lighting. Auxiliary lighting relies on the silver reflector on the shadow surface of the subject to reflect the light from the window, and the second kind relies on the indirect lighting of the flash.

Dark tone picture

An ancient kettle and stove constitute an ideal low-key still life subject, and low-key lighting complements the subject. Even if the flash lamp is used for auxiliary lighting, the picture still needs to be exposed to natural still life for 2 seconds when the f/ 16 aperture is used.

Although everyday objects can form a pleasing composition, they are not deliberately arranged together for photography, so they are called natural still lives. The secret of shooting natural still life is to find the right shooting angle and use reasonable lighting to transform the image in your mind into the image on film.

Natural order and pattern

In any case, we tend to keep our environment orderly-this habit is common at home, at work or in the garden. We will put the daily cooking supplies in the kitchen in an orderly way, so that the most commonly used things are easy to find; We will also change the position of daily necessities on the shelves to form a more objective classification.

Still life theme

Tools with the same function are arranged together, which seems to have a natural sense of harmony.

Screen layout: gardening tools

When this photo was taken, although the sun hung low behind the shed, there was still enough light to illuminate the scene. A row of tools accidentally leaned against the shed door-they were being cleaned before cleaning, and the unicycle was moved to the front of the picture because its shape and color had a positive effect on the foreground.

Screen layout: details in the greenhouse

Sunlight passes through the greenhouse and is colorful. The white wall behind the main body can be used as a rich background and reflector. It not only improves the photometry of the scene, but also sets off the dark area.

Nostalgic feelings

The sunlight coming through the window adds interest to the painting. Glass bottles and scales are mixed with cobwebs, which makes people remember them vividly.

working table

A lot of flowerpots, gardening tools and dried bulbs have formed a harmonious still life picture because of the consistency of color, shape and use.

Light.

Food photography

The photo of the dish is a "delicious" photo.

The author of this paper has only one sentence about food photography, that is, to take photos of everyone's mouth watering and appetite. If the person who saw the photo really wants to eat this dish, then it can be said that this photo is 89% successful. Taking gorgeous photos can be achieved by photography, but additional conditions are needed to take mouthwatering photos. How to proceed will be described below.

Take pictures that make your mouth water. First of all, attraction is very important, that is to say, it should be "cold" for cold food and "hot" for hot food. The water droplets on the glass with cold beer can be said to be a typical attraction. When barbecuing, the sizzling sound and the white steaming hot pot are also very attractive.

These tempting feelings can be said to be the life of food photos. According to the attractive skills of Japanese banquet wine with carp, catfish and other river fish as the main films in Fuji House in Guichuan, Kyoto: ① Take photos quickly; ② Communicate with the chef.

For example, adjusting the photography angle of the dish when it is just out of the pot, we can see that the delicacy is decreasing, such as the color change of sashimi, and the cooked dish is cold. The best example is the Liuchuan pot made of loach. After the pot cover is removed, it will shrink and harden in about 10 second, so the photographer should make all photographic preparations before the dish is taken out of the pot, that is, set the tableware for the dish in advance, put the camera in the best position for photography, and configure the lights. If you take photos with a fast imaging camera after the dishes are served, it will be too late to consider the layout.

Photographers and chefs basically disagree. For example, it is the last thing for a chef to shoot all the dishes at once, which should have started with a cold dish. Some chefs who are used to taking pictures will also cook the dishes half-cooked and decorate them with some oil. Although this can take gorgeous photos, it is not as effective as attracting saliva Before taking pictures, talk harmoniously with the chef about the ingredients, features and parts of the dishes you want to show others, so as to take attractive photos. The communication between the chef and the photographer can probably be said to be the factor that determines the photographic effect of dishes. I hope I can fully negotiate with the chef about the decoration of dishes and the choice of tableware.

Technically, lighting is everything.

The lighting of food photography should show the three-dimensional sense of food, so the top light with a slight sense of backlight is used as the basic lighting method. The auxiliary lamp can use a reflector (Figure 1 ~ 2, note: the position of the lighting lamp should be placed according to the content and performance intention of the dish, not necessarily directly above the subject). It is best to use lights for lighting. The reason is that the light and shadow irradiated by a single light source is very clear. Pay attention to the reflection of the table and soup when taking photos in the backlight, but there are also ways to use it as a specialty.

Flash is the best light source. When the light source is tungsten lamp, the slow shutter speed will cause many problems, such as jitter, external light processing, light bulb heating and so on.

Astrography

The beautiful stars twinkling in the night sky, don't you want to take it into the photo yourself?

Recently, cameras, films and astronomical telescopes are changing with each passing day, and new products are constantly being developed. In astrophotography, the subject is very dark, so the film is the decisive factor for the success or failure of photography. At present, film manufacturers have worked hard to develop films with high sensitivity and ultra-fine particles, which can be easily obtained by ordinary amateur photographers, so astrophotography can be easily completed.

Types of astrophotography methods

① Streamline photography (fixed photography). This method is the simplest method in astrophotography. Fix the camera on a tripod and take photos with exposure time of tens of seconds to several hours. Taking pictures in this way, we can shoot meteors moving around the sun (the movement of the sun rising in the east and setting in the west) into lines on the screen. This is called streamline photography or photography, because the camera is fixed, which is also called fixed photography.

② Star photo photography (guided photography). This kind of photo photography needs celestial telescope (equatorial telescope), which is a method of taking pictures with an ordinary camera on the equatorial telescope and following the movement of the stars. This method is used to take photos of the "starry sky". Because photography is carried out with the movement of the stars, the image of the stars is a point.

③ Photographs of nebulae and star clusters. The body of a SLR camera is directly mounted on the lens barrel of a celestial telescope, and the lens is replaced by a celestial telescope. This photography was carried out by the method of ②. At this time, it is difficult to take pictures because of the long focal length, small aperture and dark light of the lens.

Celestial photography can be roughly divided into the above three methods, among which ② and ③ photography methods need additional equipment, so firstly, the simplest ① photography method is used to challenge celestial photography.

Photography preparation

When using fixed photography, you need to prepare a camera (single lens is replaced by mechanical shutter. In addition, because the subject of celestial photography is very dark, it is most convenient to use a camera with interchangeable viewing screen. The use of full perspective viewfinder makes the view clear and is beneficial to composition.

Film: Recently, various film manufacturers are constantly developing films with high sensitivity and fine particles. The choice of black-and-white film and color film is good for people, but color film seems to be the best to show the unique feeling of fixed photography.

Generally speaking, stars seem to have no color, but in fact every star has color.

The color of stars is represented by their surface temperature. Stars with high surface temperature are blue and white, and stars with low surface temperature are red (the sun we bathe every day is a middle-aged star in the galaxy, golden yellow).

Using fixed photography, the colors of the stars are beautifully displayed in the form of luminous rays in the picture. Therefore, it can also be said that the surface temperature of stars can be understood through fixed photography.

The sensitivity of film does not need to be very high. Because there are many lenses with high luminous flux recently, films with high sensitivity are greatly influenced by useless light and easy to be exposed. Generally, ISO400 can be used.

Cable release: Do not touch the camera directly when the shutter is started.

Pressing the shutter directly will blur the image, so use cable to release photography. When the door B is opened, the cable release can be equipped with a convenient brake.

Tripod: Use a sturdy tripod as much as possible. When shooting, it is best not to release each section of the tripod and use it in its original length, because each section will be affected by vibration such as wind after release, which may blur the image.

Flashlight: Astrophotography is carried out in a dark environment, so a flashlight is a necessity. The flashlight holder used must be covered with red cellophane to prevent eye irritation.

Watches: Digital meters can't be displayed by LCD in cold weather, and they can't see numbers without lights at night. Therefore, it is best to use a luminous digital dial watch with hands.

Ultraviolet filter: Because there is dew and frost at night, it is used to protect the lens.

Constellation map: you can use the confirmation constellation when taking pictures.

Recording paper and pen: Because celestial photos should be kept as scientific photos, they must be recorded. The recording paper is made into tables according to the convenience of use, and then copied for use. Pens use soft pencils. Oil pens and pens sometimes freeze when they are cold and can't be written.

Pocket burner: Use pocket burner to prevent dew and frost. According to the author's experience, chemical heating bags or gasoline-fueled cooking stoves are not cold-resistant, and the heat disappears quickly. Therefore, it has long been the best to use coal with the strongest firepower and the strongest anti-combustion ability as fuel.

# Photographic steps

Load the camera with film.

② Fix the camera on the tripod.

(3) Install the burner

Wrap the burner with a towel and fix it around the lens with a rope or rubber ring.

④ Photographic composition

First, choose a location with good terrain to support the tripod. Composition is the most important step in fixed photography.

Fixed photography is different from the photography in ② and ③ above, because it does not follow the moving photography of stars, and the scene on the ground does not move relative to the camera. Therefore, only by taking the scenery on the ground into the picture at the same time can we show the characteristics of the shooting location.

When composing music, you must first understand the movement of the stars. As the photos in this paper show, the stars in different directions move in completely different directions. If you don't understand this attribute, you will take photos that don't meet your own photographic intentions. At this time, you can use a constellation diagram or compass to confirm the direction of the stars to be photographed. In the practical application of constellation diagram or compass, we can find that the stars in the same constellation behave completely differently in the photos because of the different shooting time and place.

⑤ Install the cable release device.

⑥ The focus of the camera is at the # symbol, and the shutter is placed at the B door.

The exposure time of this kind of photography ranges from tens of seconds to several hours. Although the exposure time is short, it is good, but the streamline of the stars is small and the imaging is close to a point. You can extend the exposure time when you want to photograph the streamline of the stars. The star's motion streamline shortens as it approaches the celestial pole (the north pole and south pole of the sky, and the north pole of the sky is near Polaris), and the star's motion streamline near the equator of the sky is the longest.

⑦ Determine the camera aperture.

The aperture depends on the exposure time and the sensitivity of the film. In general, when ISO400 film is used, the aperture is F2.8 ~ 5.6 when the exposure time is from tens of seconds to half an hour, and it is adjusted to F5.6 ~ 8 when the exposure time is longer.

In general, the f value of photographic aperture coefficient is better than that of open aperture by more than half a grade. Recently, the lens of the camera has a large amount of light, and the aperture f value is opened. The open F values of these lenses cannot be used for astrophotography, because when the subject is a star, the image is a point. Therefore, if the lens has aberration, it will be displayed on the picture immediately.

Because the ground scenery should also be photographed, it is not necessary to use a telescope head, and a standard lens is generally enough.

# # #

Although fixed photography is the simplest celestial photography method anyone can take, it is not easy to take photos with good photographic composition. It is the key to shoot celestial bodies with mountain and sea street scenes. Finally, I hope you can challenge astrophotography and take pictures of the stars with your camera.

In the so-called advertising photos, the photos that need to be taken in a special studio account for almost more than 80% of this kind of photos, and the photos of small objects that need to be taken on the photography platform are estimated to account for the majority.

This paper introduces the basic skills of shooting so-called small objects.

For example, using a camera as an advertising photo of a promotional product should not only show the size of the camera, but also be taken as an image photo that adds attractive images such as high quality, high performance and ease of use to consumers. In this case, the materials that make up the camera goods are metal, glass, plastic and other materials, so it is the first necessary and important job to show the different texture and sense of quantity of various materials in photography.

Expression of texture

Not only the photography of small objects, but also the photography of people, buildings and landscapes need to be described with texture, which is one of the most important factors of photography performance.

Can you get a photo close to the real thing (showing texture) by simply shooting an object? When we look at an object with our eyes, no matter what the state of the object and its surrounding environment is, most of them will not be mistaken for other objects. This is because we have two eyes and can see a three-dimensional object, and when the object is illuminated by colored light, the human eye can also recognize the original color of the object with the ordinary function of judging color. In addition, the human eye can adjust the side view on the basis of accumulated experience.

The camera has no strain of human eyes at all, so how to illuminate an object determines the essence of the object (texture and sense of quantity), so it is a very important factor. It can be seen that in photography, it is not too much to say that light determines the nature of objects.

Glassware

Glassware is the representative of transparent objects. Because of its transparency, the most basic requirement of lighting is to express the outline of the appliance with lines to distinguish its shape.

The easiest way to shoot a transparent object is to put it on an opalescent acrylic material table for photography.

Matters needing attention in small object photography

In general photography, the larger objects are mostly shot in a small picture, but the shooting of small objects is not. The shooting of the subject is magnified by nearly equal magnification or other means, so there are still some things to pay attention to in the shooting of small objects besides ordinary photography.

To make the subject look bigger on the screen, you should be close to the subject when shooting. Taking the standard lens of a 35 mm camera as an example, the shortest shooting distance is about 40 cm. If you shoot a person's face with this lens, even at the shortest shooting distance, you can only shoot a close-up of the bust. Therefore, if you want to take a small subject full of the whole picture, you must increase the distance between the lens and the film. In this regard, a large camera with fully retractable leather cavity is easy to shoot small objects, and the film size of the large camera is also large, which is suitable for expressing the texture and details of the subject. In addition, because the large camera has a perspective correction mechanism, it can also correct the shape of the subject to a certain extent, and it is also very convenient to adjust the focal length and depth of field.

In close-up photography, exposure compensation should be carried out. Let the focal length of the lens be f, the length of the leather cavity (to be precise, the distance between the second principal point of the lens and the film) be v, and the image magnification (the image length is longer than the object distance) be m, then the calculation formula of the exposure multiple x is as follows: x = (VF) or x = (m+ 1) 2. The exposure multiple value obtained from the above formula can be used as a close-up. When shooting small objects, when the distance between the lens and the subject is less than 8 times the focal length, the exposure multiple must be considered.

When shooting a small object, you should generally choose a lens with a slightly longer focal length, because a short focal length lens may produce an exaggerated perspective effect and the subject may be deformed.

In addition, if the image size of the subject is the same as that on the film, a long focal length lens can be used to increase the distance between the lens and the subject, and lighting is also easy. Therefore, 180 ~ 250 mm long focal length lens is more commonly used than 150 mm standard lens when using 4×5 inch camera. ..

The depth of field of close-range photography is very small, so the minimum aperture must be used to focus the whole small object. As a result, the exposure time is relatively long, so a single table is divided: 1. Exposure multiple increases the aperture, and exposure multiple increases the aperture. The exposure multiple increases the aperture:1.11# 71.96 # 73.45438+04 # 51.21# 42.00. 6 1.32 # 52.2 1 1 # 73.8 16 # 7 1 # 22.4 1 1 # 64.02 1.53 # 52.6 12 # 34.52 1 # 665438

The above mainly introduces the texture description of small objects, that is, the glass and metal displayed on the screen should be like real objects, which is the most basic and important factor in small object photography.

Based on the description of texture, here are some practical photography skills.