I want to learn photography, but I heard that there are several kinds of photography. I don't know which one to learn. Who can give me some advice? Thank you.

The classification of photography has always been a bit vague, and sometimes I don't know which category to vote for when contributing to some film competitions. In fact, this can't blame everyone, but for a long time, the classification of photography has not been done well in China. At one time, domestic theoretical circles never defined the concept of art, nor did they define the concept of photography. We should discuss whether photography is art from time to time. The previous view has always been that photography is an art (I used to think so). After reading the analysis of Tang Dongping's photographic works, I finally got a little understanding in the general direction. At present, the more accurate view is that photography and art are two overlapping concepts, and it is absurd to discuss whether photography is art or not. Photography itself is just a communication tool or means, similar to people who write words and articles. It cannot be said that these people are all engaged in literary and artistic creation. Photography is the same, generally divided into practical photography (such as news photography, industrial photography, etc.). ) and non-practical photography (such as artistic photography). Photography, as an art, is only a small part of photography classification. But when it comes to non-artistic photography, we can also discuss the artistry of works, because all kinds of photography have artistic elements to some extent, but we can't regard them as art just because they don't aim at art.

Recently, I participated in the "Digital Shadow Man" Weekly Competition on IT 168 website irregularly. In this competition, the works are divided into three categories: small scenery, still life portraits and documentary events. In fact, in the works we shoot, sometimes a work that is regarded as a small scene may be a still life, while many works that focus on documentary figures seem to be classified as portraits. In many competitions, in order to let contributors know which category their works should belong to, each category will be explained in detail, but it seems that the digital film week competition has not been explained in detail. In addition, most online movie contests are basically digital manuscripts, most of which have accepted digital post-production, and some have set up creative categories. Regarding the latter question, I specially wrote my thoughts in the last log, so I won't say much here. There is no creative category in the digital film contest, and it is not allowed to add or delete screen content elements to any kind of works. I don't think this is "keeping pace with the times". At least the works of small landscapes and still life portraits should be regarded as artistic photography (salon competition itself), with the aim of creating more beautiful or emotional films, which should be allowed later. If we can add another creative category, we can call it a real "digital filmmaker" competition.

In fact, the analysis of photographic works does not give a clear statement on how photography is finally classified, because there are many classification methods according to different classification standards, and the research on photography classification is also deepening and developing. As long as you understand the functions and purposes of various kinds of photography and the standards of classification, you will not be confused by the complicated classification.

By the way, I still have some confusion about creative photography. A few days ago, I took my creative film Untitled on the Grassland to participate in the monthly competition of FOTO Image Magazine and won the Excellence Award. There are two creative photography methods I understand: one is to design the picture content, put together scenes that are not easy to appear together in reality (such as a desktop computer room in the desert), complete the shooting at one time, and do not adjust the picture content later; The other is to shoot some materials in advance and synthesize them later, but to combine the materials that are not easy to appear in a scene in reality for performance is considered as creative photography. If only a few cows are added to the open grassland and look like real things, it is not creative photography. Of course, works that combine these two creative methods are naturally classified as creative photography. I don't know if there is a problem with understanding. If anyone knows better, please tell me.

Some of Li Xiaotan's works, which have won many awards in domestic film festivals, are very clear and creative works (such as "The Spirit of the Tree"), but there are also some folk films that are obviously synthetic, combining materials with better forms, such as "The Old Man, Children, Dogs, House, Sky". This synthetic scene is not to say that it can't appear at all in reality, but it is very difficult. His method can well express the environment and atmosphere, and it is really a good film, but according to my previous understanding of creative photography, I don't know if his works are creative films.