本文譯自《Popular Science》雜志網(wǎng)站上的一篇文章，原文配圖及更多精彩請(qǐng)戳原文鏈接：
Seven tips for shooting nature photos with your smartphone camera
Make every day Nature Photography Day!
Leaning outside the viewing window on this Alaskan train allowed me to include some of the cars in the photo to give context to the rest of the scene. Shot with a Nokia Lumia 910.
National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson is responsible for some of the best photography advice ever given: “If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.” Nature is full of interesting stuff, and, thanks to smartphones, we’re almost never without a pretty-good-quality camera.
But even the most-beautiful, surprising location won’t be very photogenic in the wrong circumstances. Below, a few quick tips to help you get the most out of your next nature photography adventure.
Straighten out your horizon
A crooked horizon can ruin any landscape shot. It’s not always possible to get it exactly right when you shoot it, but take the time to straighten things up before sharing.
Use HDR mode, or shoot in raw if you're feeling ambitious
Landscape photos are a great opportunity to leverage the HDR setting in your camera app. It may be enabled by default, but you can turn it on from your camera app settings, if not. When enabled, HDR mode will take several photos in rapid succession and then combine the image data into one photo. As a result, it will preserve more details that might otherwise get blown out or lost in dark shadows. This is especially handy in high-contrast scenes like bright daylight. Be sure to check your results after shooting, though, because HDR can sometimes make a scene look unnaturally flat in tone.
If you're feeling ambitious, you can also try shooting in raw mode, which is a capability most smartphones attained just recently (your best bet to enable this is to use an advanced camera app like Camera+). When the camera creates a JPEG version of the image, it clips off image information in the darkest and brightest parts of the photo. You'll need to use a more advanced editing app like Adobe’s Lightroom Mobile to take advantage of that extra data, but it can provide a lot more flexibility in terms of the overall look of the finished product.
Pick the perfect time of day to go shooting
Just before sunrise and just after sunset is a timeframe called blue hour, which can sometimes make for even more spectacular skies than the typical golden hour. This shot was taken on an iPhone 7 Plus in the early morning hours in Cape Cod, MA. It's totally unedited.
The definition of “good” light can vary from person to person depending on their tastes, but even a truly majestic view can be ruined by harsh overhead light. If you want warm, magical illumination, plan to get to your location around the start of golden hour, which is roughly an hour before sunrise and then again before sunset. Using an app like the awesome Photo Pills will let you know exactly what to expect from the sun at any given time. If you don’t want to spend the money on Photo Pills, you can use other free golden hour apps or even web-based utilities like golden-hour.com.
Don’t forget the details
Epic scenery can be hypnotizing in its beauty, but once you’ve got your wide shots, look around for smaller features and details that can help set the scene. Find some leaves bathed in sweet golden hour light or get a close-up of the texture of some particularly interesting rocks. The detail shots will be pretty on their own, but they will also give context to the landscape photos when you share them online, especially in a series.
Be careful where you place the sun
Placing the sun in the frame often creates flare, which can create streaks across the frame, introduce odd light objects, and wash out the contrast in your image. Shot with an iPhone 7 Plus.
Putting the sun within the frame of your picture can be tricky business. The intense brightness will often cause the rest of the image to darken, and flare from the rays can spread across the image, washing out contrast and introducing odd-looking blobs of color—typically purple, green, or sometimes white. Flare can happen even if the sun is just outside your frame, so try shading the lens of your camera, using your hand like the brim of a hat to keep the sun from directly hitting the lens.
Use the rule of thirds with caution
Many phone apps have a built-in grid that splits the frame into thirds vertically and horizontally. This is a nod to a basic composition tip called the “rule of thirds.” The idea is that putting the horizon of your landscape photo on one of the two horizontal lines will create a photo that feels balanced. Sometimes, this is true. Other times, this leads you to sacrifice a third of your image to boring, featureless blue sky at the top or nearly texture-free sand at the bottom. Fill your frame with the most interesting parts of the scene and try different compositions until things feel balanced. Don’t let an on-screen grid dictate what looks good to you. (Jim Richardson's photo above was likely not shot with a smartphone, but expertly uses a split frame composition that defies the rule of thirds.)
Give your image scale
The camera has a way of making spectacular things look less impressive. Trails don’t look as steep, mountains don’t look as tall, and forests don’t look quite as majestic. The wide-angle lens on your smartphone is partially to blame, but you can combat this by looking for ways to add scale. Conservation photographer Cristina Mittermeier masterfully uses humans for scale by making them small in the frame. Birds are another great option for giving scale, but you might have to wait for some to fly by.
讓每一天都成為自然攝影日！
我從阿拉斯加專列的觀景窗探出身去，把幾節(jié)車廂框進(jìn)照片，作為其余場(chǎng)景的背景。用諾基亞Lumia 910拍攝。
《國(guó)家地理》雜志攝影師Jim Richardson道出了史上最佳的攝影訣竅之一：“如果想成為更好的攝影師，那就站到更有意思的景物前。”大自然意趣盎然，現(xiàn)在有了智能手機(jī)，我們幾乎從不缺一架質(zhì)量不錯(cuò)的相機(jī)。
但即便是最美麗、最驚艷的地點(diǎn)，如果時(shí)機(jī)不對(duì)，也不會(huì)太上相。下面的幾個(gè)竅門將幫助你從下一次自然攝影的探險(xiǎn)之旅中滿載而歸。
調(diào)直地平線
歪斜的地平線會(huì)毀掉任何風(fēng)景照。拍照時(shí)并不可能總是保證恰到好處，但分享照片前請(qǐng)先花點(diǎn)時(shí)間調(diào)正影像。
采用HDR模式，如果覺(jué)得不過(guò)癮，就用raw模式拍
風(fēng)景照是利用照相機(jī)app里HDR設(shè)置的絕佳機(jī)會(huì)。它可能是默認(rèn)開(kāi)啟的，但如果沒(méi)開(kāi)啟，你可以在照相機(jī)app的設(shè)置里打開(kāi)。HDR模式工作時(shí)，快速連拍幾張照片，然后把圖像數(shù)據(jù)組合成一張照片。結(jié)果，它將保留更多暗影中本可能丟失的細(xì)節(jié)。這在明亮陽(yáng)光這樣的高對(duì)比度場(chǎng)景中尤其方便。不過(guò)，拍完后務(wù)必檢查結(jié)果，因?yàn)橛行r(shí)候HDR會(huì)使場(chǎng)景的色調(diào)看上去平得不自然。
如果你覺(jué)得不過(guò)癮，還可以嘗試用raw模式拍攝，這是大多數(shù)智能相機(jī)最近才有的一項(xiàng)功能（使用Camera+這樣高級(jí)的照相機(jī)app時(shí)最有可能啟用這項(xiàng)功能）。照相機(jī)創(chuàng)建JPEG版的圖像時(shí)，把照片最暗處和最亮處的圖像信息裁剪掉。需要用Adobe的Lightroom Mobile這樣更高級(jí)的編輯app才能利用那些額外數(shù)據(jù)，但它能使最終成品的總體觀感靈活得多。
選擇日間的完美時(shí)機(jī)去拍攝
剛剛?cè)粘銮昂蛣倓側(cè)章浜笫欠Q為“藍(lán)色時(shí)段”的時(shí)間窗，它有時(shí)能捕捉到比典型的黃金時(shí)段更壯麗的天空。這張照片是用iPhone 7 Plus拍攝到的馬薩諸塞州科德角的清晨。它未經(jīng)任何編輯。
“好”光線的定義因各人口味而異，但即使是再壯觀的景色也可能毀于刺眼的頂光。如果想要神奇的暖色光照，計(jì)劃到達(dá)拍攝點(diǎn)的時(shí)間應(yīng)在黃金時(shí)段開(kāi)始時(shí)，也就是日出前一小時(shí)左右，以及日落前一小時(shí)左右。Photo Pills是一款極棒的app，它將讓你確切知道任意時(shí)刻陽(yáng)光的預(yù)期效果。如果不想花錢下載Photo Pills，可以用其它免費(fèi)的黃金小時(shí)app，甚至還可以用基于網(wǎng)站的應(yīng)用程序，如golden-hour.com。
勿忘細(xì)節(jié)
史詩(shī)級(jí)的美景令人迷醉，但是一旦設(shè)好寬鏡頭，看看周圍有沒(méi)有有助于布置場(chǎng)景的更細(xì)小特征和細(xì)節(jié)。找到一些沐浴在黃金時(shí)段甜美光線中的樹(shù)葉，或者近景拍攝一些特別有趣的巖石的紋理。捕捉到的細(xì)節(jié)本身很美，但當(dāng)你在網(wǎng)上分享風(fēng)景照時(shí)，細(xì)節(jié)還將成為風(fēng)景照的背景，尤其是在系列圖片中。
謹(jǐn)慎安排太陽(yáng)的位置
把太陽(yáng)框進(jìn)照片中常常形成耀斑，進(jìn)而形成整張圖片里的光帶，還帶來(lái)奇怪的發(fā)光物，并沖淡圖像的對(duì)比度。用iPhone 7 Plus拍攝。
在照片里放置太陽(yáng)是技術(shù)活兒。高強(qiáng)的亮光往往導(dǎo)致圖像的其余部分變暗，光線閃出的光會(huì)充滿圖像，沖淡對(duì)比度，并帶來(lái)看上去很奇怪的色斑——一般是紫色、綠色，有時(shí)是白色。就算太陽(yáng)正好在取景框外也會(huì)出現(xiàn)耀斑，所以要盡量用手像帽沿一樣遮罩照相機(jī)的鏡頭，避免陽(yáng)光直射鏡頭。
慎用三分法則
許多手機(jī)app自帶網(wǎng)格，把取景框水平和垂直分成三等份。這肯定了一項(xiàng)稱為“三分法則”的基本構(gòu)圖法門。其理念是，把風(fēng)景照的地平線放在兩條水平線之一上將構(gòu)成一幅平衡的照片。這有時(shí)成立。另外一些情況下，這會(huì)讓你犧牲掉圖像的三分之一，讓位給頂部乏味、無(wú)特征的藍(lán)天或底部幾乎無(wú)紋理的沙子。讓取景框中充滿最有趣的那部分場(chǎng)景，并嘗試不同的構(gòu)圖，直到景物看上去均衡。切勿讓屏上的網(wǎng)格主導(dǎo)你的審美。（上面Jim Richardson的照片可能不是用智能手機(jī)拍的，但嫻熟地運(yùn)用了與三分法則相悖的等分框構(gòu)圖法）
賦予圖像尺度
照相機(jī)有辦法使宏偉的事物看上去不那么搶眼。小徑看上去不那么陡，大山看上去不那么高，森林看上去不那么壯觀。智能手機(jī)上的廣角鏡頭是部分原因，但通過(guò)想辦法引入比例尺就能克服這一點(diǎn)。保護(hù)區(qū)攝影師Cristina Mittermeier就嫻熟地把人當(dāng)成比例尺，方法是使他們?cè)趫D中顯得小。鳥(niǎo)是賦予尺度的另一個(gè)好選擇，但你也許不得不等它們飛過(guò)。
“本譯文僅供個(gè)人研習(xí)、欣賞語(yǔ)言之用，謝絕任何轉(zhuǎn)載及用于任何商業(yè)用途。本譯文所涉法律后果均由本人承擔(dān)。本人同意簡(jiǎn)書平臺(tái)在接獲有關(guān)著作權(quán)人的通知后，刪除文章。”
