Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography and portraiture - How to make your mobile phone photography work stand out?

How to make your mobile phone photography work stand out?

I am a minority, and this is my 20 17 composition final.

This article is that I am a minority, and this is the 33rd finalist of my 20 17 essay activity. Want to know how to participate in this essay activity and win all kinds of rich prizes, please click here to view the activity rules and prize list.

This paper only represents the author's own point of view, and a few only make slight adjustments to the title and typesetting.

This paper participated in the 20 17 annual essay activity of ethnic minorities.

In 20 12, I got my first iphone-iphone4s, when I was a junior two student. I still vaguely remember watching the introduction page of the iPhone 4s camera in official website, Apple at that time-8 million pixels, 73% increase in light incidence, f2.4 aperture? These slightly obscure terms made me feel a little confused, and the proofs I showed were even more amazing, so I began to take more photos consciously under the attitude that the iPhone lens was very powerful. Unexpectedly, this shot is the beginning of my mobile phone photography.

20 17 is my sixth year of contact with mobile phone photography. By this time, I was a freshman. Over the years, mobile phone photography has been completely integrated into all aspects of my life, and even become a way of life for me. Over the past year, my concept of mobile phone photography has also changed. In addition to ordinary landscape and human photography, I began to explore a new way and explore some methods and tools that can make my photography unique and novel. Therefore, all my thoughts and attempts are gathered in this article, which is a work I participated in the essay-writing activity, and it is also the answer sheet handed over by my mobile phone photography for one year.

Note: All the illustrations in this article were created by myself.

Why do you want mobile phone photography?

In the past few years, I have always chosen to take photos with my mobile phone. At present, I have no intention to start with a camera in the foreseeable future for three main reasons.

First, the portability of the mobile phone itself and the necessity brought by additional functions. Compared with the camera, the mobile phone is a very petite everyday device. We take out our mobile phone every day, so it will be more convenient and timely to take pictures with it, and we can capture more unexpected moments. But for the camera, because it has a certain weight and single function, it is an extra device for me compared with the mobile phone. I can live a day without a camera, and I can't live a day without a mobile phone. So it may be difficult for me to take out my camera every day, which is why I am afraid of it.

The second reason is that there are many wonderful applications. The advantage of taking a photo with a mobile phone is that the early and late stages of a photo can be closely combined. As we all know, in the app store of mobile phones, the number of apps under the photography category can be said to be very large, and many of them are of high quality and powerful functions. Therefore, it is in such a compact environment that the use of mobile phones can have a very convenient and smooth experience of capturing inspiration and creation. At the same time, this is inseparable from the artistic and creative photos I will talk about later. If there are not so many wonderful apps, I can't finish many creations.

The photography application I'm using.

Finally, it is your own needs. Although the hardware condition of the mobile phone is definitely not as good as the camera at present, with the continuous upgrading of the camera, I can say that the lens of the mobile phone is enough for me. In my opinion, what kind of equipment is the best without my own needs, that is to say, for my personal shooting needs, although the mobile phone is not the best, it suits me. So I don't think we need to start with the camera.

Why art and creativity?

The first thing to explain here is artistry and creativity, and the meaning of the title that stands out from the crowd. It doesn't necessarily mean how wonderful the photo is, how perfect the light, shadow and color are. What I want to say is not to take the usual path-try to make the picture unique and novel in the early stage, and try to make the photo bring a unique and wonderful visual experience by changing the shape of the object, reconstructing the picture view and adding special effects in the later stage, which will leave a deep impression on the viewer and arouse the viewer's attention and thinking.

I think of this for two main reasons. First of all, it's my own reason. As mentioned above, this is my sixth year of contact with mobile phone photography. Although this road is still long and my technology is not perfect, I am more or less tired of many stereotyped photos, so I have the will to open my mind and do some creative work.

Most importantly, this is determined by the hardware conditions of the mobile phone itself. For the camera, its hardware conditions are good and its pixels are high, so the photos taken with it can maintain high definition even after selective local cropping and enlargement, so the camera has the ability to reconstruct the picture. Mobile phone photography doesn't have this ability. Generally, after we press the shutter, the picture will look like this, even if it is cut, it can only be a relatively small range. So all along, I have an idea that mobile photography depends on creativity.

How to take a unique photo in the early stage?

The steps of making a photo can be roughly divided into early stage and late stage. Although there will be more room to play in the later stage, a high-quality photo is the key, so early shooting is essential. And if you can take satisfactory photos at once, that's the best. So I combined with my own image style, summed up some points that I would pay attention to when shooting in the early stage, and what I would shoot.

1. Extremely simplified photos

If painting is an addition process, then minimalist photography is a subtraction process, which is called a rare art. The picture of minimalist photography works is more pure than other photography works, giving viewers a sense of tranquility and peace. So I like minimalism very much, and I will consciously pursue this style when shooting.

In order to achieve this, my approach is to reduce the things in the picture step by step by constantly looking for angles and seats. For example, I will look at the scenery in the picture, and then I will think: How can I make this telephone pole or this trash can disappear, and how can these things that affect the picture leave my picture?

From left to right: Simplify the picture by adjusting the position and angle.

For example, the picture of Guang Zhouta below is simple, but in fact, Guang Zhouta is located in the CBD of Guangzhou, surrounded by high-rise buildings. It took me a long time to find a seat where I could take such a picture.

In addition to finding the angle, I will enlarge the picture by zooming and pick out some parts of the picture to shoot, which can also effectively eliminate redundant objects. This is especially simple on the dual-camera iPhone, because there is a button under the internal interface of the camera App, which can quickly switch between 1 and 2 zoom. Moreover, this zoom is actually switched between the wide-angle lens and the telephoto lens, so the double zoom is not a digital zoom, and the image quality is not lost. At the same time, it eliminates the distortion effect of wide-angle lens, which is very suitable for shooting buildings.

Looking for a strong contrast

Contrast is a very simple but remarkable photography technique, which emphasizes the differences between elements in photos. The combination of two elements with opposite characteristics in the same photo can set off each other, strengthen each other, highlight their respective expressive force, appear contradictory, but unified, harmonious and relaxed, leaving a deep impression on people. So when I take pictures, I always try to create contrast, create works with strong contrast, and enhance the readability of photos. When shooting, I usually pay attention to two kinds of contrast-color contrast and light contrast, because these two kinds of contrast are obvious and common in life.

The most common color contrast is the contrast between cool color and warm color. This contrast can be made up of objects of different colors, such as painted tiles; It can also be influenced by the weather at different times of the day, such as the warm yellow sunset in the evening and the blue sky.

The yellow wall contrasts with the blue sky, and the shadows of trees contrast with the sky in color and light.

Two kinds of contrast coexist.

Regarding the contrast between light and shadow, generally speaking, at noon, the sun is strong, and it is easy to capture a picture with strong contrast between light and shade. I like the contrast between light and shade very much, and this style can also be seen in my photos.

3. Produce reflection effect by reflection

The mountain peak hangs in the middle, and the stone wall is like Qiong Yao. The fish in Long Yin are green, and the birds and animals swim in the clear water.

-Chu Guangxi's "Looking down on Nanshan with Qiu Ji Qujiang Gong"

Reflection can always arouse our reverie and association. Using reflection to shoot can bring symmetrical visual effects and make the picture more artistic.

The most common thing is to use the reflection on the water surface to shoot the reflection. If it clears up after the rain, or there is water on the ground, I will always rush to lower the plane and see what effect it will take. I will keep the camera as close to the water as possible, so that the reflection will be more perfect. In addition to this rare situation, I also try to create my own opportunities. The most extreme situation is that I once bought a bottle of mineral water and poured it on the ground to create a water surface in order to shoot the reflection effect of a building. Although that photo is not very nice? It must be water [covering his face].

Of course, it is not only the water surface that can achieve the symmetrical effect. In fact, any object that can reflect light, such as glass and ceramic tiles, can achieve the same effect as long as we observe it carefully at ordinary times.

The reflection formed by the reflection of tiles

4. Use of props

I occasionally look through the photos I have taken before, and I often think-how to make the pictures that were not worth taking, or monotonous pictures, interesting through some small changes? My starting point is to create some photos that others think are wonderful.

So what I have done this year is to use some props in addition to ordinary photography. These props do not refer to auxiliary tools such as external lenses and tripods, but things that can add strange effects to photos. For example, I bought a prism before. When sunlight passes through it, it can reflect colorful light, and this light can have a unique charm when applied to photos.

Rainbow light refracted by prism

In addition, I often try to build some interesting pictures by observing the fixed elements in the scene. The following photo was taken by me at the school sports meeting. There were many ribbons and balloons in the audience at that time. I asked a classmate to stand behind the balloon and take this photo, and a strange balloon man was born.

Balloon man

In addition to these specific props, I will improvise through some temporary small objects in my daily life. For example, in the photo below, there is a slender beam of light on the ground. In order to match it, I put a Yakult jar in front of it, thus building an interesting picture (left). If there were no such small objects, my limbs could be photographed. For example, after I took Yakult away, I reached over and took another photo (right).

5. Use special applications and modes

In recent years, thanks to the proliferation of mobile phone photography apps, I also have some novel poses when I take pictures.

I took a photo with fox.

For example, Focos launched in the second half of 20 17 is a breakthrough. It makes good use of Apple's open interface of depth of field effect in iOS 1 1, and realizes the black technology effect of taking pictures first and then focusing. At the same time, its algorithm is very powerful, which can simulate the effect of large aperture and shallow depth of field very delicately and realistically, and even shoot the effect comparable to that of SLR cameras in suitable environment. I love it beyond words.

In addition, there is Enlight Quickshot, which focuses on three novel camera functions, among which stroboscopic mode is the most worth mentioning. Similar to long exposure, but smarter and more interesting than long exposure. All you need to do is hold your mobile phone steady and aim at moving things, and let Quickshot take a series of photos continuously. It will help you put them together, keep the trajectory of the object, and present static and dynamic effects.

I took pictures in the flash mode of Quickshot.

In addition to App, on iOS 1 1, the live photos taken by iPhone can be directly converted into static photos with long exposure effect. In the future, you can take long exposure photos such as silk waterfall and light rail directly through the lens of iPhone. I am very keen on taking pictures of crowded scenic spots in this way, which not only keeps the scenery clear, but also blurs the crowd, making a dreamlike picture, which is more beautiful and durable than ordinary tourist photos here.

I took a long exposure photo with a live photo.

However, it should be noted that it is best to use some accessories such as tripod to fix the mobile phone, because even a very slight shaking will blur the long exposure picture, except for the iron hand.

There is also a portrait mode that comes with iOS. After several system iterations and updates, the algorithm is constantly improved and strengthened, and now the imaging effect of portrait mode is very good. In addition to shooting people, portrait mode is also very suitable for shooting other objects, so I often use portrait mode to take pictures, which often leads to unexpected gains.

I take pictures in portrait mode.

In addition to the live photo and portrait mode, the two new iPhone released by Apple last year also pointed out another way for us-portrait lighting effect. Like portrait mode, portrait light effect is also suitable for many scenes other than portrait photography. Among them, the stage lighting mode and monochrome stage lighting mode can achieve very unique effects, which can identify the main body of the picture and add a dark black background while highlighting the main body.

I take pictures of people with light effects.

Skills of improving early shooting level

Of course, even the best ideas and tools should be based on good photography technology. In the sixth year of contact with mobile phone photography, I also had some personal experiences. To gradually improve the level before shooting, my method is to observe more, think more and shoot more.

Among them, there are two main aspects of more observation. First, observe life. Only by calming down to experience and observe life can we find the beautiful things in life. You will know that ordinary things in life are also worth filming, which can cultivate a kind of ability to discover beauty. When I am commuting or traveling, even if I sit in my seat and don't take out my mobile phone to shoot, I will look at the scenery outside the window, look at various parts, and imagine in my mind what these parts look like in my lens, such as a mountain, which part should I intercept, its ridge or top, and what will the composition look like? So, when you walk on the road in the future, don't bow your head and play with your mobile phone. One is unsafe, and the other is that you will miss a lot of good things.

The second aspect of observing more is to observe other people's well-shot works. When I am bored, I always brush some social platforms or websites for photography, such as Unsplash, Tumbler and provocative pictures, where I can see many excellent works. I think in this way, a beautiful standard will gradually form in my mind. By observing and learning the advantages of other people's works, I can know what kind of pictures are good-looking, thus subtly affecting my next framing and shooting.

The second is to think more and observe other people's good works in combination with the above mentioned. When observing other people's works, I not only simply look at them, but also think-if I take this photo, can I take it? This photo, where is it, where is the exposure pair, where is the focus pair, is it overhead or overhead? I will try to restore the photographer's general scene in my mind.

The last one is the most important-shoot more. In fact, what you see with the naked eye is very different from what you see under the lens. Sometimes what looks unremarkable may be another flavor in the lens. And the sensitivity to detect this difference, I believe that only more shots can be cultivated, and the phrase "diligence can make up for the shortcomings" is very applicable in photography.

How to make a photo artistic and creative in the later stage?

After talking about the early stage, it is the turn of the late stage. If photography is compared to painting, then photos are canvases. Later, I can use all kinds of powerful apps on my mobile phone to create freely on it, which is why I like photography. It makes me feel relaxed and interesting. Then I will talk about how to use an App to present my ideas and make a photo artistic and creative.

1. Creative splicing

Over the past few years, I have taken many photos, some of which are similar in composition and content. So the first thing I did was to observe my previous photos, trying to find similar light-shadow relationship and object outline, and then skillfully combine two seemingly unrelated photos. Here's an example:

From the Forbidden City to Guangzhou: the left side is taken from the Forbidden City, and the right side is taken from Guangzhou, which is spliced later.

In order to create such photos, I use Snapseed and Union. The extension tool in Snapseed can intelligently extend the boundaries of photos, and Union is the tool to finally stitch two photos.

First of all, when I find two photos, I will cut them out first, leaving roughly what I want to splicing. The most important thing is to observe the outline of the object and try to find more feature intersections, so that the effect will be more natural and not inconsistent.

But because the two photos may not completely coincide at this time, I usually type them in the trade union first, and if I find some inconsistencies, I will fine-tune the cutting. If it still doesn't work, I will use Snapseed's extension tool to expand the photo, so that it has more space for me to combine.

After the photos can be matched, they can be exported, and the extra parts can be cut off and slightly modified.

Of course, you don't have to find the material in your old photos. If you want to sew a photo, you can predict what it can sew first, so that you can shoot the material that can be used for sewing in life. For example, in the following photo, I had only one photo of Yulong Snow Mountain (right), and the other photo was taken by my classmate as a model (left).

In addition to this creative splicing of two objects, I also try to splice different photos of the same picture. For example, the following photo is a combination of three photos of the same building I took in different weather, and the specific operation method is similar to the above.

2. Use liquefaction tools to simulate long-term exposure.

Speaking of liquefaction tools, friends who like to take selfies may be familiar. It can move and zoom the content of the picture, for example, it can be used to slim face and enlarge eyes. But by chance, I found another use of it-simulating long exposure.

Simulated long-time exposure

At first glance, this photo looks like a long exposure photo, but it is not. Its original background was just ordinary blue sky and white clouds, but I used the liquefaction tool in Enlight to turn pieces of clouds into flocs, which completely changed the style of the picture. The difference between the simulated long exposure and the long exposure of photography apps such as Live Photo is that you can control the effect freely and see the degree intuitively-if you increase the number and intensity of passing, the deformation of the object will be more intense, and the transformation of increasing exposure means longer exposure time, and vice versa.

So how did I do it? In Enlight, the liquefaction tool is called dressing, which is what we need. Because the principle of this method is actually to create a dynamic effect by distorting the elements in the deformed picture, the first step is to lock the main body in the picture, that is, to smear the objects that don't want to be deformed with the brush tool.

After painting, you can drag other parts of the picture bit by bit in the same direction with the fine-tuning brush, and the object will be deformed accordingly. If repeated many times, the object will be elongated into a floccule. Generally speaking, the more times, the stronger the deformation of the objects in the picture, and therefore more details will be lost, so the picture will be more pure.

When you are satisfied with the effect, you can stop. Then, you can save it to an album for further editing, such as color matching.

Original and renderings

This kind of gameplay looks very complicated, but it is actually suitable for a wide range of scenes, because it is not harsh on photos, just take a photo with a prominent subject and a blank background, but the final effect is very outstanding.

3. Play special effects applications

To tell the truth, these methods mentioned above have certain limitations, because not every photo is suitable for creation, and there are not wonderful ideas all the time. So when I am not particularly inspired, I will use other apps to transform a photo.

Defqt is an App I often use, which can make ordinary scenery unique with the simplest operation. Defqt has built-in 22 kinds of picture special effects, including symmetry, blur, distortion, noise and other distortions, as well as color effects such as bicolor, offset and overlap. With these special effects, your original photo will be unrecognizable, but at the same time, the eye-catching index of your work will be guaranteed to be higher. Its magical charm left a deep impression on me, which made me even have the illusion that I was Doctor Strange or a dreamer in Inception.

Can you imagine that the picture on the right is changed from the left?

The second one is SKRWT, whose biggest function is to correct the distorted picture, but there is another widget in the App-mrrw. It is mentioned above that you can take a reflection in the early stage, but when you can't take it in the early stage, you can use it to quickly generate a reflection effect. Just import a photo, you can choose vertical symmetry or horizontal symmetry in MRRW, and simply drag and drop to adjust the symmetrical image content, which is very easy to use.

In addition, I mentioned using a prism to make rainbow light, and now there is an App that can simulate this effect in detail. It's colored. This App has built-in many realistic optical effects, in addition to all kinds of rainbow light, as well as the special effects of sunlight passing through various windows. The addition of this small special effect can change the lighting of the whole picture, and even the look and feel are completely different from the original shooting scene, so Colorow is more suitable for indoor photos. If these special effects can be used reasonably, they will definitely add a lot of color to the photos.

In addition to the mainstream retouching apps, these relatively small and sophisticated apps are all I have been using. Although the frequency of use is not the highest, I am always reluctant to give them up, because occasionally using them to edit previous photos will often yield what I expect and let me know that my photos can be like this. And the effects they can produce are difficult to shoot directly in daily life.

Choose a unique presentation method

From the early stage to the late stage, how to take a unique and novel photo, my ideas and practices have been unreservedly given to each other in the above article, so in the following part, I will talk about the way I present the photo. Although in theory, it is enough to publish photos directly without retouching in the later stage, sometimes I will go further. If I want to create, my photos will choose another presentation method.

I can do it in two ways. One is to add a border. The existence of boundary provides a barrier between the viewer and the work, but this does not mean constraint. Instead, you can structure the picture and make it more regular, just like taking pictures through the window. At the same time, a framed photo is more like a well-mounted exhibit, revealing a sense of art.

Of course, when I say borders, I don't mean the complicated and colorful borders in Meitu Xiu Xiu, but the simple and solid borders. The App I use is VSCO, and I like its border tool very much (you need to subscribe to VSCO X). Inside, you can choose the preset border color and adjust the border thickness through the slider. It's as simple as that, but this style is just what I want. In addition, Union can achieve the same effect as long as the background is set to a solid color.

My second presentation is to create a picture-in-picture, which is actually similar to adding a border. The reason why I thought of doing this is actually inspired by pop art and clip art in magazines (which is also the inspiration of my creative splicing). My approach is to choose a landscape photo with similar color system to the original picture, and then adjust the size of the original picture and put it on the landscape photo. This montage-like processing method combines different levels of space together, resulting in a strong visual contrast, but because of the similarity in color, seemingly different pictures appear unified, giving people unlimited room for imagination.

The App I used when I created the picture-in-picture was also Union. The background is used to place landscape photos, and my own photos are placed in the foreground. Then I can scale the combination at will, which is very simple.

My picture-in-picture works (some background pictures are from Unsplash)

Photography does not have to choose a unique presentation. I regard this activity as an experimental creation, but in fact it can really bring unique beauty to photos, just like beautiful words and stickers, but my choice is just a framework. You can try similar creations more often.

The harvest of my mobile phone photography in the past year

Photography is an art with great connotation. I am glad that I was born in this era of developed mobile phones and can have such excellent equipment as iPhone. It gives me and everyone the right to record light and shadow. There are a large number of high-quality photography apps in the app store, which makes art and life closer than ever.

20 17 years, my photography style has changed. Besides ordinary photography, I prefer to try a novel and unique photography experience. For me, photography is a continuation of my aesthetics and worldview, which has changed the way I observe the world. I still remember when I first entered the university in September last year, because our dormitory was actually an old building, some brothers, sisters and my classmates sometimes complained that the dormitory we lived in was old and shabby. But I've seen-lived-for so long, and I think it's actually quite good. Then I usually take pictures of them. After I send them to my circle of friends, some students will leave a message saying that our dormitory is also beautiful.

The dormitory under my lens

So I think what I have gained is the way of observing things, that is, the ability to discover beauty. And in the whole process, I actually invested a lot in mobile phone photography. I love it, and I was tired of it for a while, but anyway, I live for it-this is the most important thing for me.

This article is very long. Thank you very much for reading. It would be my happiest thing if I could use it for you or inspire you.