Why do documentary photography mostly use black and white tones?

The reason why documentary photography mostly adopts black and white tones is 1. Eliminate the interference of color: the biggest difference between black and white and color photos is the existence of color. Color is an important information to express the meaning of photos, but if there are too many colors, it will become noise that interferes with the viewer's vision; 2. Let you pay more attention to the change of light: without color, let you pay more attention to the interaction between light and shadow, the direction, intensity and texture of light (soft light, hard light) and so on; 3. Emphasize emotional expression: black and white photos make the expression contents such as eyes, fine lines and facial movements more detailed and clear; 4. The eternal value of black-and-white photos: Without color information, it is difficult for viewers to judge the timeliness of photos, and they will not feel outdated, because black-and-white photos seem to belong to the past and will not reduce their value because of time.

Documentary photography is a kind of photography with the main appeal of recording the reality of life. The material comes from life and reality, and truthfully reflects what we see. Therefore, documentary photography has the value of recording and preserving history and has the unique qualification as a social witness.

Shooting skills of documentary photography

1. Use of photographic language

To understand and master the photography language, and use it to highlight the theme of the picture. For documentary photography, no matter what kind of lens focal length can record real scenes and events, but the perspective characteristics of different focal lengths will be more conducive to the performance of the picture. For example, the perspective of wide-angle lens can show a distinct sense of scene in documentary photography, strengthen the impact of close-range, and at the same time can accommodate more scenes, more details and more picture information.

Step 2 grab it in an instant

Recording real events in real time is the key to documentary photography. The immediate effect is far greater than the pursuit of light and shadow and composition. Therefore, it is often impossible to force perfect composition and light and shadow effects in the middle of shooting, because the composition should be decided in an instant, capture the instant light and shadow, and press the shutter in time in order to record vivid, natural and real instant images. Therefore, although the composition may be lacking, the light and shadow may not achieve the best artistic effect, but because it is the most authentic and vivid picture, it will have a strong sense of the scene and full of life, so the photos taken will often have a strong appeal. Of course, it would be more perfect if the technical links were also in place.

3. Master snapshot skills

Snapshot is the most typical shooting method of documentary photography. At this time, there will be certain requirements for shooting skills. You must be able to master the settings of the equipment and control the shutter speed and exposure, in order to record the event accurately and timely. Especially for indoor shooting, the combination of aperture, shutter and sensitivity is very important because of the light. At this time, we should make more use of natural light to shoot. If the flash is forcibly used to fill the light of the subject from the front, it will often cause the effect that the subject is too bright and the background is very dark, and the photos taken will be not vivid enough and lack of picture level.