How do novices take postcard-like landscape photos?

Lead: I often see other people's scenery photos like postcards. How can I get a similar feeling? What skills can be used before and after shooting? Let's learn some simple application methods!

(1) Wide angle or telephoto?

When taking a landscape photo, whether it is a wide angle (such as 16mm) or a telephoto (such as 200mm), you can take different feelings. The former can not only cover a wider range of scenery, but also create a sense of space. If there are enough pixels in the photo and the lens is sharp, it will make people feel "immersive". The latter can compress the scenery and narrow the distance!

(2) It is very important to balance the light difference.

In addition to taking silhouettes, it is important to balance the light difference between the sky and the ground in order to make the photos more professional! Don't just rely on aftereffects to highlight the dark parts. It is recommended to use the Graded Gray Filter (GND) to preserve light and dark details.

(3) Do you want a shallow depth of field?

If you want the whole photo to be clear, you can use a small aperture, such as f/8- 13, and the influence of the depth of field of the wide-angle lens will be greatly reduced; But if you want to take a close-up or highlight a certain part of the scene, you can use a large aperture and telephoto to take a blurred background with a shallow depth of field. However, if you use a large aperture in the sun, the photo may be overexposed. At this time, the ND filter comes in handy.

(4) color adjustment

In the part of color adjustment, it can be roughly divided into shooting and post-production:

When shooting, we can adjust the warm color or cold color by white balance. The lower the k value of the camera, the colder it will be. In addition to using white balance, we can also apply color filters (blue/orange gradient), but pay attention to the position beyond the fire to make the photo look a bit fake.

In post-production, whether using Photoshop, Lightroom or RAW to modify software (such as Nikon's Capture NX, Canon's DPP, etc.). ), you can also modify the white balance of photos or add color filters, depending on which way you like.

(e) Post-production enhancement effect

Using post-processing software, we can slightly enhance the impact of photos. In addition to the color contrast mentioned in the fourth point, we can also enhance the "clarity" or "fuzzy mask" to make the photos clearer. Lens correction can repair the deformation of the lens itself, which is especially useful under wide-angle lenses. Of course, post-production can also add dark corners, or adjust saturation/vividness to make colors more abundant.