The heading is a bit loud, but I don’t know how else it was possible would call this article. Naturally, it will be about my personal experience and the way I shoot on my camera. I can not immediately for all speak. I am sure that someone photographs about the same, someone very differently, but until you try it yourself you cannot develop your own scheme of action. And let’s start with shooting conditions and typical errors.
The content of the article
- 1 All parts of my FAQ for beginner photographers:
- 2 Shooting conditions
- 2.1 Twilight and night
- 2.2 Dynamic range
- 2.3 How to shoot and when
- 3 How I take pictures while traveling and at home
- 3.1 General
- 3.2 Settings
- 3.3 Some nuances
Contents
All parts of my FAQ for novice photographers:
1. Which camera to choose a novice photographer 2. What what lens is needed and what to choose 3. Basic settings digital camera 4. How to photograph in travels 5. How process photos in Lightroom and how to store them 6. Example photography bags and photo backpack for a traveler 7. How to photograph starry sky 0. What I photograph in travels
Shooting conditions
The fact is that due to the imperfection of technology we depend on time of day. I will not go into details about the technique, just I will say that it is about the amount of light in the dark and about dynamic range.
Twilight and night
If you shoot at dusk or at night, then you there will be a catastrophic lack of light, the pictures will be dark or blurry. Can you save ISO to maximum, high-aperture lens and tripod.
ISO can be unscrew somewhere up to 400-800 for simple cameras and up to 1600-3200 for better cameras. Next is go strong artifacts and not the fact that such a photo will watchable. Experienced to check what value you will arrange.
A high-aperture lens will give much more light than a normal one, but You will lose in sharpness due to the depth of field. Well, and if the yard at all dark night, do not flatter yourself, will have a tripod use.
The tripod is excellent and budget solution, much cheaper than high-aperture lenses and expensive ISO carcass. Only one minus – your object must be static, otherwise it will be greased due to long exposure. Although sometimes it only decorates photograph I wrote separately about how to shoot the starry sky.
Dynamic range
We are accustomed to the fact that with our eyes we see very well almost in any conditions. And when we look at the photos we received, wonder why they are so different from what they see. The problem is that the matrix cameras have much smaller dynamic range compared to the human eye. And precisely therefore, frequent occurrences are photographs with the sky littered when the sky is not blue, but brightly white, illuminated, or vice versa, the sky normal color, but very dark forest / land (anything below horizon). The camera is simply not always able to capture at the same time too bright area and too dark so that they both were visible with normal illumination (and the eye can). By the way u cheap soap trays the dynamic range is quite small, so SLRs or good mirrorless ones offer advantages, but even here know the nuances.
Almost no too dark areas, but the sky and water are overwhelmed.
Too dark shadows, but already normal sky and water
Not only is the problem of dynamic range outside, but also in rooms when the room is dark and from the windows daylight.
In the window nothing is visible at all, but the room is visible.
You have to choose either the normal sky in the window, or you can see what’s in the room
How to shoot and when
- It is better to photograph in the mode time, that is, in the morning and when the sun is nearing sunset. First, the difference between the brightest point and the darkest will be much less than during the day. And secondly, when shooting in the middle of the day, very hard shadows are produced, it is not beautiful. See for comparison the sunset photos when the light is soft and warm, it feels like a grandmother’s blanket in the dank the weather.
- When photographing on a bright sunny day, try to do it is so that the sun shone in your back, if of course you need get a blue sky It is clear that if your object is a waterfall, then its if you can, then at least the sun will be at an angle of 90 degrees to the line of shooting (shines you in an ear).
- Choose this exposure so that the frame is darker than necessary, and not the other way around, being guided across the sky so that it is at least a little bit blue. Here semi-automatic modes and correction will be useful. exposure, or manual mode. I assure you, pull it out later dark areas are much easier to program than light ones. And too light areas can not be pulled out at all.
- Shoot in RAW, of which it is much easier to pull something when processing.
- When shooting an object / person in backlight (when not only the object itself is in front of you, but the sun shines straight into the lens), better Just use the flash, even the built-in. Then you can the exposure is adjusted to minus and the shadows will be less by face.
- You can wind the gradient gray filter on the lens. But applicable only if you have a smooth boundary between bright sky and bright earth.
- And if you really want to be confused, then read what is exposure bracketing and HDR photography. In short, instead one frame is made several with different exposures (dark photo, medium, light), and then in a special program with each from the photos the necessary piece is taken, from one sky, from another earth. There are also built-in HDR modes for photographing in JPEG.
In the next article about processing, I will tell how to make such photo of the one that was higher
How I take pictures while traveling and at home
My photography scheme (oh, how loud it sounds again) is not depends on whether I travel somewhere or just walk around my native Moscow Since I am not a wedding photographer, I do not shoot various love-story and not in photography studios, most of them are shooting I happen on the street: landscapes, passers-by and architecture. Occasionally there are also in rooms.
General
Let me remind you that at the moment I always have two lenses with me: regular 24-105L and shirik 11-16. It is called regular for a reason but because it is always screwed on the carcass, there is a shirik there sporadically.
People, near plans, long plans, reportage, sometimes landscapes, I almost always take off at 24-105. This is convenient when a large zoom, You can take a picture or zoom close to you. Portraits too I’m quite satisfied with this lens (105 mm). Mirror with convenient control and this lens allows for a split second zoom in / out, change settings, and generally navigate.
Landscapes are mainly rented at 11-16, to fit as much as possible more. With the advent of breading, there is no need to make panoramas by gluing several frames. Of course, shirik does not allow make a real panorama when it’s 180-360 degrees, but I quite enough angle. You can still take great pictures. architecture, I like how it breaks the geometry (not all fit). In general, using it is very cool to look for some angles that are not available to the ordinary eye and the usual lens. Perhaps you have seen such a technique here or on other blogs – filming from ground level when the camera is put on the ground, or is very close to her. Here with a width very well it turns out.
Paris, removed from the ground in the soap box. I really like this photography, Daria shot
Settings
In 90% of cases, I use the aperture priority mode. Because my objects are mostly static, or at least not moving too fast, the shutter priority mode doesn’t need I already wrote in the article about the basic settings of the camera, what values and rules I use, I will not repeat now. That is, I expose the diaphragm, and then just keep track of which Exposure selects the camera. If something does not suit me, then I I quickly twist the wheel exposure compensation in one direction or another. As a rule, in a minus, because the main problem is lack of light and, accordingly, not enough stock opportunities with technology. Still, if you mention at least some value, then in general cases, when you do not specifically shoot anything I am going to put the aperture somewhere F5.6.
Also in this mode, I often put in advance exposure compensation in -1/3, -2/3, -1. It allows me to win some value from shutter speed or aperture. Yes, the frame is darker than necessary (underexposed), but this is easily drawn out later in Lightroom lossless, because rented in Raw. I add that the ISO also put often a little higher than necessary, almost never drop below 400 so that There was a reserve on the settings. Since I have a working ISO up to 1600 (in my glance), then below 400 it makes no sense at all to drop, well, only if I I do not take long shutter speeds under sunshine waterfall, when, on the contrary, you have to twist everything in reverse side to reduce too bright light. In the cheapest or in mirrors, I think, if possible, it is worth it and below 400 down.
I almost always have focusing on one point. On the previous camera was only the center point (she the most accurate, because only she was a cross), now sometimes I shift to the right place for me (now I have all the points cross) Naturally, if there is a possibility, it is better to shift so as not to build central compositions. But, if such There is no possibility, then how to shoot at the center point? Focused on the object by pressing the shutter button halfway, took the camera aside so that the center is not composition, and pressed the shutter button. Try differently take pictures and see if your camera will miss not.
How to take pictures while traveling. Photos of Katie Kuchina.
Some nuances
- If I’m on a photo hunt, then I never turn off the camera and hold it on the neck. Only in this case, you can not miss the frame. Anyway put the camera in a bag / backpack and then quickly pull it out again annoying. Exception, hike, when you can not hook cheap camera for any stone or snag. In hikes the camera is always in the trunk and on the shoulder.
- When I know what I will do reportage photos, besides the camera is on, I’m still trying to predict the frame and set settings in advance (sometimes in the manual mode, it’s easier). And when I have to shoot quite dynamically, then I remove the focus one by one. point and put the automatic selection. Occasionally I use tracking autofocus. The report on the wet new year is made entirely on the machine, just duplicate was a million.
- If you really want to make a certain frame, I can A lot of duplicates with different settings and different angles. Then I leave from this just a couple of photos after thinning.
- For building a composition I often use the rule of thirds (or Immediately when shooting, or then cut into Lightroom). This is when the frame is in the mind is roughly divided into three parts horizontally and vertically, and These lines are my photographing objects. Not fanatically, of course, I follow this, but often. Mainly manifested in the fact that the horizon I have not in the middle, but a little higher lower. And people are not in the center of the frame, but to the right or to the left.
- Landscape composition can not figure out, but just see. I may not see it the way the other person would see it, but it’s also There is a certain view. But portrait photos do not do I can, because I don’t understand how to put shadows, and how to put person to improve the photo. But generally, it trains, just I do not really need.
- In those rare moments when you need to reduce the brightness of the light, I use a polarizing filter, for example, to shoot a waterfall in the afternoon. You can still use gray, but I do not have it. Same I use a polarik in the mountains, and sometimes for landscapes, so that the sky is more blue. The latter only works when the sun is under 90 degrees to the line of shooting (shines in your ears), this is a feature Polarians. And the Polarik is good for cleaning the reflected light (shop windows, glare on the water).
- I often use a tripod if I rented Pezayzhi at dusk. it much better than raising the ISO and opening the aperture. Are the only ones minus – carry it with you.
- If I make a frame with a man where he plays a major role, then most often rented it close. I really do not like photos, where several people stand tall at the monument, occupying only half of the photo height, figs make out who is there.
- I also don’t like the format “I’m standing at the monument in the center photos with a stony face. “This is some kind of horror, even for Family archive will not go, boring. Better fooling around and ape in the photo, or at least look away somewhere far away with the philosophical kind of. When we traveled with a group around Thailand, we made everyone to express emotions, otherwise there would be no such lively and fun photos.
Rule of thirds to build a composition
P.S. Something happened so long, I hope that not too boring and understandable. If anything, ask questions in the comments. Naturally, she does not claim to be true, and this is just how i do that need not be right 
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Choosing insurance is now unrealistically difficult, therefore, to help everyone travelers, I make a rating. To do this, constantly monitor forums, I study insurance contracts and use insurance by myself.
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