Photography of night scene portraits is a relatively difficult one, because you need to consider the normal exposure of the foreground and background, and also consider how to make the images of the foreground people clear. Indeed, this is one of the problems that most tourists encounter when visiting night scenes.
Especially when shooting in the automatic mode of the camera, the flash is turned on during shooting, so that the characters closer to the camera are correctly exposed. However, due to the limited flash range of the camera and the short exposure time, This makes the night scene, which is originally brilliant to the naked eye, appear dark and blurry in the camera.
This is because distant night scenes require a long exposure when shooting to leave a normal exposure effect on the photo, while nearby people only need a short exposure due to the flash. Time will do. Therefore, when shooting, it is best to use the manual mode of the camera, slow down the shutter, and force the flash to open at the same time. After the flash flashes, it is recommended that the person maintain the original posture until the exposure is over, so that you can take photos with normal exposure of the person and the background night scene. However, night scene portrait shooting is not exclusive to manual cameras. Some advanced automatic point-and-shoot digital cameras have a night scene portrait shooting mode, which is also set up using the principles of slow shutter and forced flash.
You need to use a tripod to fix the camera when shooting, because you need to keep the camera still when taking long exposures to the background. At this time, a tripod becomes a necessity.
Use slow shutter speed and flash to shoot night scene portraits so that the foreground and background exposure are clear
Before shooting, you must explain clearly to the subject that once the flash is turned on, it will not This means that after the shooting is completed, you must maintain the original posture and position until you are told that you can change or leave. The flash light is shining right. For the curtain shutter, it is a sign that the front curtain has reached one end of the film window and is turned on, but the rear curtain has not yet reached the film window at this time (use synchronized shutter time).
Special
When shooting with a high shutter speed and flash, the foreground characters are often exposed normally but the background is underexposed
Only when the rear curtain passes through the film window and reaches Exposure ends in the closed position. Regarding the shutter in the lens, the flash flashes at the same time when the shutter is fully opened, but the shutter has not yet closed after the flash. Since the exposure time required for night scene portraits is often about 1 second, or even longer, after the flash fires, the shutter is still open for a long time to feel the light of the night scene. If the subject moves, it will be blocked by people. The background part will face the lens and continue to be exposed to light. In the photo taken, the portrait part will be transparent or translucent. Therefore, the subject should remain in its original position before the shutter is closed.
In fact, it is not too difficult to take night scene portraits, as long as the following conditions are met:
1. Try not to use "point-and-shoot" cameras. Lower-level or intermediate "point-and-shoot" cameras such as When the light at the scene is dark, the flash will automatically fill in. The flash fill in this type of camera either does not have enough light for the person or the scene, leaving the person in an almost completely dark environment, or the background is completely black and the person (especially the face) is completely dark. Parts) were so completely white that even the eyes and nose could not be seen. Therefore, it is necessary to use a camera with the function of manually adjusting aperture and shutter time. Even if it has functions such as shutter priority and aperture, it should be adjusted to manual shooting.
2. Don’t put too much faith in the “night scene mode”. Currently, some “smart” cameras have a “night scene mode”, but this mode can only set the focus at infinity, so it cannot be used to shoot night scenes. Otherwise, the scenery must be clear and the portraits are loose and empty.
3. Use a tripod. Since the scene light at night is relatively dark, it is often necessary to use a larger aperture and a longer exposure time. For "long exposure" shooting with a handheld camera, it is almost difficult to avoid camera shake. With a tripod fixed on the camera, the camera will not move even if the shutter speed is as long as several seconds.
4. Flash. Flash lighting has the characteristic of lighting up close but not far away. Of course, this is subject to the "inverse square law". Therefore, when a person is 3 to 5 meters away from the light and the scene is 15 meters away, the light received by the scene from the flash is only one-tenth or one-tenth of that of the person, which basically does not work. To bring out the three-dimensional effect of portraits, you should prepare two or more flashes.
When the above conditions are met, you can start shooting night portraits. The specific method is:
1. Frame the scene first. After arriving at the scenic spot, first look for scenes worth shooting, and then frame the scene. determined within the range.
2. Expose the background night scene and determine the exposure combination. Due to the darkness at night, cameras with internal light metering devices often cannot measure specific data if they use the conventional ISO 100 film speed. You can first expose at a film speed of 1600 or even 3200, and then gradually convert it to a film speed of 100, plus the "reciprocity law reduction" factor. For "S" (short exposure, shutter time no longer than 1/10 second) type film, if a slow exposure of more than 1/4 is used, the exposure should be increased by 50% to 100%. Take the night view of the Bund above as an example. If you use a photo of 100 and rely on novel floodlights to illuminate the night view of the building after it is completely dark, you can consider an exposure combination of F8 and 1 second. If you want to change it, you can choose F5.6 , 1/2 second or F11, 2 second exposure combination.
3. After the exposure combination is determined, the aperture is the basis for determining the standing distance of the portrait. Originally, when using flash, the index divided by the distance equals the aperture, but here, it must be calculated in another way: the index divided by the aperture equals the distance. This is because the aperture when shooting night scene portraits is determined based on the ambient light, not the flash. The index is determined by the lighting distance. Now, the position of a person standing or sitting is determined by the distance determined by the lamp and the aperture. At this point, please note: Different from the conventional calculation method, it requires a little awareness of reverse thinking. It is determined by the distance between the person (standing distance) to measure the aperture.
4. Before shooting, you must explain clearly to the subject that once the flash lights up, it does not mean that the shooting is completed. You must maintain the original posture and position until you are told that you can change or leave. The flash flashes. For the curtain shutter, it is a sign that the front curtain has reached one end of the film window and is powered on, but the rear curtain has not yet reached the film window at this time (use synchronized shutter time). The exposure ends only when the rear curtain passes through the film window and reaches the closed position. Regarding the shutter in the lens, the flash flashes at the same time when the shutter is fully opened, but the shutter has not yet closed after the flash. Since the exposure time required for night scene portraits is often about 1 second, or even longer, after the flash fires, the shutter is still open for a long time to feel the light of the night scene. If the subject moves, it will be blocked by people. The background part will face the lens and continue to be exposed to light. In this way, the portrait part of the photo taken will be transparent or translucent. Therefore, the subject should remain in its original position before the shutter is closed.
Through the above operations, you will be able to take satisfying portrait night scenes.