​A brief introduction to light in macro landscape photography

Micro-landscapes can be created in almost any light condition due to their small environment. But different times of day and different weather can have a big impact on the results, canvas prints so let's take a look at each one.

The light of sunrise and sunset

Shooting miniature landscapes at sunrise or sunset, especially in well-lit environments, is a luxury because most of the time we choose a large scene to capture the red clouds, canvas prints australia and rarely use this time to find small scenes.

In fact, from another perspective, the most wonderful red clouds half an hour before sunrise are not suitable for creating miniature landscapes, because it is difficult for us to draw the sky into the picture, and even if we can draw the sky into the picture, panorama canvas print we cannot show beautiful colored clouds. So from that point of view, the best of the sky doesn't help us much in photographing small scenes, so the sunrises and sunsets that I'm going to talk about here are focused on the half hour after the sun comes up, or the half hour before the sun goes down. For red clouds before sunrise or earlier twilight, we can treat them with cloudy days, which I will discuss separately below.

Why is half an hour of light after sunrise good for taking miniature scenes? This is determined by the nature of the light at the time. Half an hour after sunrise, the sun just rose from the horizon. The light was golden and gentle, and it was suitable for shooting backlight. Compared with the light half an hour before sunrise, the sunlight in this period could shine on the subject itself. Twigs of snow and ice here just by the morning light, low Angle of backlighting shooting Angle highlights the texture of ice crystal, the same can also be applied to the petals, leaves and so on have the details of the objects, like we take a leaf in the sun looking at the sun, all sorts of meridians are obvious, and here we are just borrow the gold of the half an hour after sunrise, let whole tone more attractive.

It is also half an hour after sunrise. If it is shot in a smooth way, the effect will be reduced. However, the light in this period is generally softer than that at noon, so as long as the right Angle is selected, creation can also be carried out, as shown in figure 2. Because it doesn't have that special transmission, it doesn't have the same visual impact as backlighting, but if you can find the right contrast of light and shade, such as the contrast between the shadow and the golden light shown above, it can also catch your eye.

Cloudy day, twilight light

Here I will give a unified explanation of the situation that there is no strong light shining on the objects, including cloudy days, twilight, rain and snow weather, light for half an hour before sunrise and so on. These circumstances cannot appear the effect that if sunrise golden light transmits leaf meridian, but because also do not have large strong light to wash off detail, can appear so millillion hair shows sharpness.

Look at figure 3. This work was taken before the sun rose, so that the plant received light evenly, with the form and details, including the white frost on the leaves, clearly visible. The disadvantage is that there is no color of light or contrast of light and shade, so the sense of conflict of the picture is much less. But after all, the details are clear. As long as the composition is properly adjusted, the color and lines of the subject can be used to make an article.

Noon and plenty of light

Noontime light is often unsuitable for macro because it is so strong that it washes out details on objects, which can be devastating for micro scenes, as shown in figure 5. Although the color of this picture can hardly be seen, the ice crystals on the leaf surface appear very harsh, and the grain of the leaf is completely unclear, which is the effect of strong light washing out the details.

But this is not to say that in broad daylight cannot take miniature landscape, there are a few exceptions, first of all, if we can find a place of shelter, even we leaned over to filming will be completely in the shadow of object, the cloudy day shooting environment is simulated, and second, we can also find caused by obstructions projected onto the object on the mottled light feeling, match with surrounding exposure, can have a contrast effect. In addition, we can also imitate the shooting method half an hour after sunrise, shooting objects against the sun, sometimes due to the different materials of the object itself can also appear in detail.

Let's look at each of these three cases. The first is to find a way to completely block the object, see figure 6. The leaves on this piece of ice were taken at noon on a clear day, unshaded. But the good thing is that the object to be shot is small, so I owe it to myself to be able to completely put the whole picture in my own shadow. This simulates an overcast environment and allows the light to be even, so the result is also a lot of detail and color.

Let's take a look again at the tiny landscape in the midday sun, as shown in figure 7. The leaf surface here is blocked by the object, so even though the light is very strong, it still shows details in the shadow, and there is some detail missing in the bright place. In this case, we can use enveloping to reduce the exposure of the bright part. Some friends may ask, if there is no occlusion, is it possible to use surround exposure to highlight details? The answer is yes, but if you do this, you can only have a picture that is either overall bright or overall dark. Without this contrast, a picture without contrast is not interesting.

Finally, let's look at the backlight macro against the strong light. In general, I don't recommend this, but for some objects, it may work well. See figure 8. It is not difficult to see that the backlight effect under the midday glare is not as gentle as half an hour after sunrise, and the details are not so prominent. But instead of washing out the details, at least here we can see some lines of vegetation and snow. In the same way, sunlight penetrates the subject's thin, thin surface and allows the details to be, in a way, enhanced.

Other shooting environment

Generally speaking, miniature landscapes can be photographed in any light condition, but at least make sure that we can see the scenery itself. At night, for example, it's often too dark to capture details. But that doesn't mean you can't create. For example, when there is a full moon, the moonlight illuminates the subject and forms a unique visual effect, as shown in figure 9. The contrast between the water grass growing in the pond and the reflected moon in the water is a good one, even if the details are not particularly prominent. Therefore, split canvas prints we should always keep our eyes wide open and open our minds to observe and create our own micro-landscape.