Post-processing skills of scenery films

Lead: In photography, there are three stages and seven stages. Let's take a look at the processing skills in the middle and late stage of landscape photography.

Bashang has always been a paradise for photographers. The vast grassland, flocks of cattle and sheep, and large tracts of birch trees have become beautiful pictures in the photographer's lens.

Early in the morning, the stars in the sky are still flashing, and machang town, the Hongshan Army on the dam, is already busy. Groups of photographers, covered with stars, carrying equipment, driving jeeps and following guides, entered the shooting point one by one. As the rising sun rises, the crisp shutter sound becomes one. Morning on the dam is always exciting.

This film was shot in Taoshan Lake on Bashang in late September. In early autumn, the weather on the dam is suddenly cold, so in the morning, floating thin clouds, such as veils, form on the lake, which is intoxicating. However, limited by the light and time at that time, the overall tone of the film was gray, and the tone of the whole film was not bright enough.

The first step is to adjust the tone.

Create a tone adjustment layer. In the pop-up color scale panel, move the white field slider of the input color scale to the right starting point according to the histogram. Move the black field slider on the left to the left starting point of the histogram. Now the overall tone of the film is normal, click? Close? Button to exit.

The dam mentioned by the photographer is on the different grasslands of Wulan at the junction of Weichang County in Hebei Province and Hexigten Banner in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, about 480 kilometers away from Beijing. At present, most expressways are from Beijing to Chengde, and the highways from Chengde to paddock are of high grade. There are county and township roads about150km from the paddock to Bashang, and the overall road conditions are good. Therefore, most photographers go by car, which is more free in time and convenient for photography. When we arrived at the dam, there were many farmers' hostels to stay in. There are few road signs and no regular roads between the photography spots, so we need to provide tour guides and jeep charter services at the residential areas.

The second step emphasizes the warm colors in the morning.

In the early morning, the place where the sun rises is warm, but these colors are not obvious enough now and need to be emphasized. Create another hue/saturation adjustment layer, open the hue/saturation panel, and move the saturation slider to the right appropriately to improve the color saturation. After that, it emphasizes the warm color of the east behind the mountain to achieve the effect of twilight. Press again when you are satisfied? Close? Button to exit.

After emphasizing warm colors to improve color saturation, it not only strengthens the warm colors in the eastern sky, but also strengthens the cool colors of cyan in the thin clouds floating on the lake, which seems to be jumping and conflicts with the warm colors above, and should be weakened. Different methods can be used to reduce the saturation of cool colors, such as directly reducing the saturation of cyan in the image. This is achieved by masking.

Now it is still in the mask operation state. Select the gradient tool in the toolbox, set the foreground color to be white and the background color to be black, and pull out the gradient line at a proper position in the middle of the image, so that the warm tone in the upper part of the image can be preserved, and the cool tone in the lower part is gradually blocked by the mask.

When I first saw the morning fog of Taoshan Lake, I was attracted, moved and intoxicated by it. In fact, the exposure parameters of this film are basically normal, but I always feel that the film doesn't look exciting enough. The idea of later adjustment is to make the color beautiful, and the red sunrise and blue morning fog give people fantastic reverie.

The third step is to fine-tune the contrast.

The overall tone of the film is normal, but it feels that the thin clouds floating on the lake are weak and lack of vividness, which needs careful adjustment to solve.

Create a curve adjustment layer, and establish three control points on the curve according to the sky bright spot, the thin cloud point and the tree dark spot. Move the bright spot and midpoint up appropriately to improve the brightness of these two points. Move the black spot down appropriately and darken the shade of the tree. You can see that the overall contrast of the image has improved and the clouds are dynamic. Press again when you are satisfied? Close? Button to exit.

The sky is too bright. It is still in the mask operation state. Select a brush in the toolbox, and the foreground color is black. Carefully daub it on the sky and distant mountains, and the sky and distant mountains will regain their previous colors.

I feel that if it is darker, it may be more in line with the artistic conception of twilight.

Create another curve adjustment layer to adjust the sky. According to the bright spot of the sky, a control point is established on the curve, and if this point is pressed down, the sky becomes dark and the effect of twilight is satisfactory. Click? Close? Button to exit.

It's getting dark, and the ground is getting dark, so it needs to be restored.

Select a brush in the toolbox, the foreground color is black, and set the appropriate brush diameter and hardness parameters in the options bar above. First, the distant mountains were smeared out and the original hue and level were restored. Then carefully smear it according to the floating direction of the clouds, and the clouds in the middle part also restore the original color tone, and the clouds at the bottom make it darker, which is beneficial to highlight the effect of brightening the clouds in the middle part.

I always feel that the cloud in the middle has completely recovered its previous bright tone, which is a bit too much, and the dark one is a bit dull, which should be somewhere in between. Choice? Edit fades out? Command, in the pop-up fade-in and fade-out window, move the slider to the left appropriately, so that the strength just smeared will gradually weaken. Satisfied with the effect of seeing floating clouds, click? Are you sure? Button to exit.

This is equivalent to using gray as a mask, or using black to reduce the opacity of the brush when painting a mask, but it is easier to control and more flexible to fade in.

The film has been adjusted to show the fairy tale artistic conception of the morning fog in Taoshan Lake. The east wants to dawn, the fog is light, the distant mountains want to wake up, and the trees move with the clouds, just like a fairyland.

Bashang has a high reputation in the photography circle, which not only attracts photographers around Beijing, but also attracts the interest of photographers in the south. Even photographers from Hong Kong and Macao go there in droves. Photographers on the dam come from all corners of the country. Bashang intoxicated many photographers and made their dreams come true. But the dam is only suitable for photography, not for general tourism.