How do we appreciate the art of photography correctly?

Photography is a visual art, and its ideas should be expressed through concrete images, so we might as well consider the following aspects when appreciating it:

(1) theme.

To appreciate a photographic work, we must first look at its theme. Because the author will always have creative passion when he has deep feelings, a work will always reflect the author's likes and dislikes. The objective effect of a work mainly depends on the author's cognitive level and artistic level. A good photographic work should strongly infect the viewer, let him feel what the author wants to express and let him sing.

In order to highlight the theme, the author must, on the basis of practice and observation, strive to get the essence from the rough, discard the false and keep the true, carefully screen what he shoots and remove unnecessary things as much as possible. After determining the subject, he should put other scenery in a subordinate position to make it play the role of setting off the subject. In order to highlight the theme, the author sometimes uses "title". An appropriate title can often make the finishing point. Generally speaking, the title should be highly summarized, with few words and sentences, so as to be subtle and intriguing and arouse people's rich imagination.

(2) light and shade.

Light and shadow are particularly important for photography. Because it is black and white and countless shades of gray levels or various colors in color photography that form the visible image in the photo. Based on the different feelings brought by different shades of color in life practice, such as the clear sky makes people feel comfortable and the dark clouds make people feel depressed and sad, photography always skillfully uses the changes of light and shade to make the works more strongly infect and impress the audience.

The treatment of light and shadow is often expressed as "shadow tone" in photographic works. Generally speaking, photos dominated by white and light gray close to white are "high-key", while photos dominated by black and dark gray close to black are "low-key", and the middle tone is in between. High-profile makes people feel happy, bright and pure, so it is often used by people who shoot children's themes, medical work and beautiful scenery; Low-key makes people feel solemn, serious and gloomy, so it is often used when shooting portraits of old people or grand scenes.

(3) Angle.

Different people shoot the same theme, and the artistic effect of the works may be very different. In addition to the pool factor, the shooting angle plays a key role. On the surface, this seems to be a purely technical problem, but in fact, the choice of angle often permeates the author's strong feelings. Such as the great famine in Ethiopia, the Reagan couple and the Terracotta Warriors.

(4) composition.

This is the basic requirement of photography. Symmetrical balance can give people a sense of stability. We say that symmetrical balance includes up and down, left and right, size, echo and color. Not all objective things are symmetrical and balanced, so photographers should handle them properly in their creative activities. The symmetric equilibrium we are talking about is mainly the visual and psychological effects of the audience, not the symmetric equilibrium like a balance. In that case, it must be mechanical and monotonous, and it can't be aesthetic. Good works in this field, such as "US-Soviet Summit" and "The Consequence of Drought in Uganda".

(5) rhythm.

A photo can't make the picture airtight and make the audience feel dull and depressed. It should have a certain rhythm like a good poem or music. In order to achieve this goal, the author should skillfully and appropriately handle the objective scenery, so as to give the audience a comfortable sense of movement.

When appreciating photographic works, the theme plays an important role in all the above aspects, while others are for expressing the theme. A good photographic work should be a high degree of unity of beauty in content and beauty in form. By saying this, we are not belittling the expressive skills of photography at all. On the contrary, it is with superb skills that good content can be perfectly reflected.