What is the tone level? How to control the tone of photography?

The level is the structural order of the artwork. Literature, sculpture, painting, and photography all talk about levels. The levels of photographic works include tonal levels, tonal levels, and perspective levels. Among them, the most important and influential is the tonal level. If you want to make your photographs rich in layers, first you need to choose a layered scenery; second, you need to restore the layers of the scenery truthfully.

So, what is the tone level? Tonal level refers to the order of permutation and combination of different shades of black, gray, and white. The tone level of the photo reflects the light and dark levels of the scene. High contrast and low contrast are both low levels, moderate contrast and rich levels. For different photos, it can be high-key or mid-key or low-key. In a photo, there can be multiple tones, which constitute the tonal levels. It is the basic skill of photographers to truly reproduce the tonal levels of the scene.

How to control the tone? The purpose of controlling tone is based on creative intention. Regardless of realism or freehand brushwork, the light, dark, soft, and hard tone of the tone must obey the theme. For example, bright tones are used for joyous themes, and dark tones are used for tragic themes to arouse viewers' associations and express the photographer's thoughts. To grasp the characteristics of the scenery. The basic function of the camera is to record, and the tone must conform to the characteristics of the scene. For example, when shooting a landscape, the shadow of the distant scene should be shallow, and the shadow of the close scene should be deep to enhance the sense of space. For another example, women and children should use soft and high-key to show the delicate and tender skin. Create an environmental atmosphere. Different tones can highlight different atmospheres and express different themes. For example, shooting a firefighter to fight a fire should use a hard and low-key tone to create a jumping, intense, and tense environment. Choose climate time. The spring is full of vitality and the summer is scorching, so you should shoot high-key; autumn is full of fruits, you should shoot midtones; in winter, the cold wind is bleak, you should be afraid of low-key. Sunny and snowy scenes should be high-profile, rainy and foggy scenes should be soft-tuned.

Methods of control. First, improve the light conditions. If the natural light is too high, the tone will be harder and the transition level will be less. You can use a mid-gray gradient mirror to darken the sky. Use the secondary light to change the light ratio to change the image tone. To shoot blue sky and white clouds, use a polarizer to make the blue sky bluer; use an orange filter to make the blue sky darker and lighter the white cloud; second, change the shooting direction. The ratio of side light, side backlight and back light is large, and the shadow adjustment is hard; the forward light projection is less, and the shadow adjustment is flat. The tone structure can be changed by changing the shooting angle (azimuth, height, distance). Third, adjust the exposure combination. If the combination of the aperture value and the shutter value and the ISO sensitivity of the film (or CCD) matches the brightness range of the scene, the exposure will be accurate and the tone will be rich. Overexposure will reduce or lose the details of the highlights, and underexposure will reduce or lose the gradation of the dark parts. Fourth, use post-processing software. The digital image can be adjusted by the curve of the software.