What's the difference between painting and photography?

There is a difference between photography and painting.

1. Photography tends to be on-site and objective; Painting tends to assume and idealize.

The sense of scene and objectivity of photography are determined by the physical characteristics of photographic equipment such as cameras and photographic negatives. In the whole process of photography, it is impossible to produce photographic works without the help of science and technology, the assistance of machines, the mechanical function of the camera itself and the darkroom technology. Painting is different. With a brush, a piece of paper (or a piece of cloth) and paint, the author can daub it at will and write happily.

2. Instantaneous performance.

Both photography and painting need instant freeze-frame, but the way of instant freeze-frame photography is strictly limited by heaven, earth and people. This is what the so-called "now or never" and "there is no shop after this village" mean. "Photographers can only do it in an instant, without delay, without pause, without modification and without further consideration. The moment he turned on the camera, all the details were recorded, even faster than his brain memory. " Weston's painting "Looking at photography with photography" is different. Although it can only represent a certain historical moment and a certain period of life, it is calm and free, and the painter can completely condense and store the repeated moments in his heart, and then show them confidently in the studio. The moment in painting is fixed by the painter who feels life, decides the theme, conceives the picture, drafts it, revises it repeatedly. The moment of photography is what the photographer saw, thought and captured on the spot. The focus of painting is restricted by the natural and physiological conditions of human eyes. A painter can only paint what the human eye sees. For example, there is a picture of a horse running on all fours, and people have been arguing about which hoof touches the ground. Photography is a scientific record, which often captures things that people can't see, because the lens of a camera is more accurate than the human eye when observing things. Human vision can only stay at the first cognitive level, and lens vision can even extend to the inside of the nucleus.

3. The use of light and shadow.

The recording function of light is the specialty of photography. It can be said that photography uses light to express thoughts and record feelings. Painting is slightly inferior to light. Photography is modeled by the language of light, so some people call it "light painting". In the use of light, photography has influenced painting, improved painting skills and improved the expressive force of painting. In particular, color photography technology provides light that the painter's eyes can't feel.

Be realistic

Photography relies on the mechanical and optical characteristics of the camera to describe the object it wants to express directly and truly, which is incomparable to painting. The same is to show a person, the photo can be his person, painting can only be like him, painting can be "realistic", but photography can be "documentary". If you take pictures, the person in the picture is Zhang San, not Li Si, and the scenery in Guilin is not Taihu Lake. Therefore, photography can't create a "typical" photography through fiction and shaping, just like painting. Although both photography and painting depend on tools, cameras are more restrictive to the author than brushes. Contrary to the objective documentary characteristics of the camera, you can't try to master the brush.

Photography and painting are two different art categories with different characteristics, so they cannot be confused.