Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography major - What should I pay attention to when playing street shooting?

What should I pay attention to when playing street shooting?

I believe you have read many articles about street shooting, which may be more about technology, composition, how to take candid photos of pedestrians and so on. But don't forget, there is another important element in street shooting, and that is the story.

In fact, street photography is technically no different from other subjects, whether it is composition or the use of light and shadow. Only street photography lacks a fixed model, because the whole world will be your model. Your keen observation seized the best shooting opportunity, and sometimes, you need a little luck.

Street photography is attractive because it has the characteristics that pose photography and landscape photography do not have, that is, telling a story with a photo.

Sometimes, the story is subtle and will be covered by more prominent features in other photos, such as light and shadow, such as color. But sometimes it is also very strong, just like alfred eisenstaedt's famous victory kiss in Times Square.

Aside from the controversy behind this photo, this photo is an excellent example of telling a story. When we look at this photo, we will not deliberately delve into its composition principle and aesthetic feeling, but will pay more attention to the story behind it. Many street photography works are famous not because they are beautiful and perfect, but because there is a powerful story behind them.

Of course, not all stories need exaggerated body language to express, but more is a calm unfolding. A good photo can make the audience associate, imagine what the character in the photo will do in the next second, and thus unfold the story of this character in his heart.

Many times, documentary photography, news photography and ordinary street shooting are three easily confused concepts. Although they are three different concepts, they are not always contradictory.

Documentary photography can be regarded as a style of photography, which is always subjective and critical and can reflect the values of a photographer. It can also refer to recorded images, usually social images with retained value, as the image basis for people to relive history, but this history only reflects one side of history, which is one-sided and one-sided in the eyes of photographers.

News photography generally refers to reporting photography, and the key word is publication. Strictly speaking, images that are not used for publication cannot be regarded as news photography. In modern times, the definition of publishing has actually been blurred, especially the emergence of a large number of self-media Many independent photographers are their own publishers, and publishing photos through their own social platforms also constitutes their own news release.

News photography is not so much an expression as an application of images. Because news photography must be a realistic image without prior director, in a broad sense, news photography can also be regarded as a kind of documentary photography.

Snapshot refers to a method of quickly capturing images, which is neither a style nor an application. However, many documentary photographers like to go to the streets to find their subjects, and most of their works come from people captured in the form of snapshots on the streets, so street photography-documentary photography with snapshots as the main style came into being.

But whether it is documentary photography, news photography or street photography, what they have in common should be storytelling, substituting the audience into the world in the photo through a fixed picture, taking the photo as the lens of the film, and thinking about the story that will happen next from the photographer's perspective. Let the picture stretch out in your own fantasy.

There are many ways to express a story, which can be a picture, an action or even a look, but they all need a clear main line to describe it, or what kind of main line the photographer wants the audience to imagine.

You need to capture each other in your photos. Strong contrast is a good way to tell a story. The audience can form their own small theater with two completely different performances in the same picture. Sometimes, an independent picture may lack some seemingly indispensable things, and this "absence" is also a manifestation of contrast.

There are countless ways to express this story. Of course, the story may not really happen, but the moment captured through the photographer's lens can remind the audience of what may happen, which is also a victory for street photography.

The soul of street photography is emotion, which is expressed by stories and displayed by characters.

Take to the streets and photograph the story in your heart.