Introduction to Photography

The first part talked about what photography aesthetics is made of, what makes us feel beauty and what is the law of beauty, focusing on the repetition and variation, contrast and harmony of the law of beauty. Today, let's look at balance, symmetry and rhythm.

If a photo is balanced, we will feel very comfortable and stable, and we will not feel which side of the photo is heavier or lighter. Balance is a kind of force balance.

Symmetry belongs to the category of balance

We learned the symmetrical framing method on the first day of framing:

Symmetrical photos give people a comfortable sense of stability and show the balance of efforts. So symmetry is the perfect form of balance.

But balance is not only symmetry, but also a balance that breaks symmetry.

What do you mean? Look at this picture.

Well, I think the color is beautiful, but the picture seems a little unstable, and it feels crooked, and the center of gravity seems to be on the left.

Yes, this photo is a typical imbalance. Ok, let's watch the next one:

This photo is balanced by adding a lady in the upper right corner. Although it is not symmetrical, there will be no sense of imbalance.

Now, we compare balance to the relationship between a balance and objects placed on both sides.

Look at the symmetrical balance, the objects placed on both sides have the same weight and the same position from the center point, so the force is completely balanced.

Look at the balance of 1. The heavier object on the right is too close to the center point, so the lighter object on the left is far from the center point.

The center point refers to the position of the lens in photography. The balance 1 is shown below:

You can see that the figure in the hat is very big and close to the camera, so the lady in the upper right corner is very small at this time, but far from the camera, reaching a balance. Let's take a look at this photo again.

The skateboard boy on the left of the picture is bigger and closer to the camera, and the villain on the right is smaller, but because he is far away from the camera, he pulls away, so the whole picture has a balanced beauty. If the villain on the right side of the picture is removed, the center of gravity of the whole picture will be very left, which is not very comfortable visually.

This balance that breaks the unified structure is sometimes more vivid than symmetry.

Look at this again:

These three teenagers have also formed a balance. You see, the teenager with his back to us in the vicinity is very important in the picture, and he is also close to the camera, so two teenagers with smaller bodies in the farther position should be together to balance the picture.

You can cover a teenager with your hands at will, and you will find the picture unstable. These three people also form a triangle, and the structure is relatively stable. This photo corresponds to the balance 2 in the picture below.

This is also:

The boy who looks at the right side face is the closest to the camera and weighs the most, so he needs two people who are farther and farther away to balance, and these three points just connect into a stable triangle. Therefore, when we take pictures, we can also try to construct this balanced relationship.

The last basic principle is rhythm and prosody.

Does the word rhythm remind us of music? Yes, we will naturally think of the speed, strength and ups and downs of the music beat. This is the rhythm, and it is precisely because of the rhythm that the melody will be beautiful and moving.

Then there is rhythm in photography, and the beauty produced by rhythm is called rhythm. Look at this photo:

You may wonder why it is this rhythm. Isn't this a repetition? In fact, the pillars in the picture are really the same, but the farther away the pillars are from us, there will be a deep relationship, which will produce a sense of perspective and is a gradually weakening rhythm.

So rhythm is a process in which the same element changes according to certain laws. For example, in the above picture, the same column belongs to "the same element", and the depth change means "changing according to a certain law".

Look at this again:

Why is this song rhythmic? The costumes and movements of the four subjects in the picture are basically the same, but when the third person arrives, the white bag on her hand is particularly conspicuous, forming a feeling of ups and downs, just like the feeling of "Mimi" in music.

The color of the picture is also very harmonious, both regular and orderly, and has a unique personality, so it has a sense of rhythm.

The three chairs were arranged in an orderly and linear way, and then the chair in the middle suddenly changed. Although they are shooting objects, they give the audience a silent rhythm. Next, take a look at this:

In this light gray snow scene, a row of brightly dressed women appeared, one after another, orderly, but each of them had subtle differences in clothing, props and movements, forming a rhythmic beauty.

First of all, the paintings hanging on the wall from left to right have a sense of rhythm, and then the chair and the people on the chair form a sense of rhythm and echo each other. Look at this again:

The wind flutters in different ways, and the gradual change of flying colorful flags forms a three-dimensional sense visually, which also gives people a pleasant sense of rhythm.

All right, enough rhythm.

The above contents are selected from the plane structure.

Regarding the basic principles of formal beauty, the first part and the second part respectively introduce repetition and change, contrast and harmony, balance and symmetry, rhythm and prosody. I believe that after you master some basic principles and laws of formal beauty, we will no longer be a white man who picks up a mobile phone and shoots casually, because our eyes on the world will become different, and we will begin to appreciate a photo and gradually see the world with a photographic eye. I hope that after some deliberate training, our aesthetic vision will be improved.

Attached:

Eight reasons why you love photography.

The golden sentence of photography 100 that must be remembered is worth collecting all your life.

"Introduction to Photography | Three tips to teach you how to get started with photography? 》

Introduction to Photography | Methods of framing and composition you need to master

Introduction to Photography | Knowing Pictures Makes You a Master of "Knowing Pictures"? 》

Introduction to Photography | Basic Principles of Formal Beauty (I)