Cartier Bresson's viewpoint theory

The word composition comes from Latin, which means structure, composition or connection. In photography, it refers to the arrangement of pictures and the determination of the relationship between various components in the picture, so as to finally form a unified overall picture. This is the whole modeling structure created by the photographer to express his thoughts, including the combination of light and shadow, lines and tones.

In the long-term photography practice, he has developed a pair of extremely keen eyes, so that the photos he takes often have a handy style, but they are all well-thought-out and coordinated works. Interestingly, most of his works are shot with a standard lens of 50mm, and rarely with a lens of 35mm or 99 mm Bresson has many original opinions on photographic composition.

In 1952, he pointed out at the decisive moment:

If a photo wants to express the theme as strongly as possible, it must strictly establish the connection between form and problem. Photography has an implicit recognition function, which is to recognize the rhythm of the real world. The job of a discerning person is to find a specific theme among a lot of real things and focus on it. The task of the camera is only to record the decisions made by the eyes on the film. Just like painting, we regard photography as a whole and can grasp it at a glance. In photographic works, composition is actually the result of the simultaneous combination and organic organization of different elements seen by the eyes. Because content and form are inseparable, the composition can not be supplemented afterwards, nor can it be supplemented afterwards to subsidize the basic materials. In other words, composition must be inevitable.

2. Photography has a new plasticity.

Photography has a new plasticity, which is formed by lines that appear instantly when the subject moves. We shoot with the movement, as if the movement itself is showing life in its predetermined way. However, in the process of movement, there will be a special moment, when this moment appears, all the factors in the dynamic progress are in a state of balance. The task of photography is to seize this moment, stabilize the state of balance and dynamically condense.

3, the role of the eyes

Bresson believes that the photographer's eyes are always evaluating what appears in front of him. He only needs to move a part of 1 mm to match the line. He can change the angle of view by slightly bending his knees. By putting the camera closer or farther away from the subject, he can draw a certain detail, which may complement each other or usurp the role of the host. However, the time required to compose a photo is almost as short as the time to press the shutter, because both are conditioned reflex.

Step 4 wait for the right time

Sometimes, you have to delay for a while and wait for the right time to appear. Sometimes, you will feel that everything in front of you is ready, and you can almost take a good photo, but something is still missing. What is missing? Perhaps, someone suddenly walks into your sight. You tracked his movements through the viewfinder. You waited patiently and finally pressed the shutter. You left with a sense of accomplishment (though I don't know why) and satisfaction. In the future, in order to realize this feeling, you can print the image into a photo and carefully analyze the geometry in the photo. If you press the shutter at the decisive moment, you will observe that you instinctively captured a certain geometric pattern. Without this geometric model, the photos would be boring and lifeless.

5. Oppose any editing of the photos taken.

Bresson pointed out: "composing music is the primary task that we must always go all out." However, at the moment of shooting, it can only be produced by intuition, because we are capturing fleeting moments, and all the relationships involved are moving. When applying the golden section, photographers have no rules to follow except their own eyes. Any geometric analysis, any work to simplify the complexity of a photo into a line form, can only be carried out after the photo is taken and developed. But all you can do at this time is a useless after-the-fact check. I hope I will never see a camera viewfinder with a composition grid on sale. There is no golden line on the frosted glass. "Bresson is very opposed to any editing of the photos taken.

Cutting a good photo is undoubtedly equivalent to erasing the correct proportional relationship. What is unique is that a photo with poor composition can be cut out with a darkroom magnifying glass and turned into a successful example. Because, in this way, the visually complete combination at that time no longer exists. Many people have discussed the angle of the camera. However, the only effective angle is the angle of geometric composition, not the angle that the photographer bends down on the ground or does some ridiculous actions in order to achieve any effect.