Skills of shooting lotus flowers

Lotus is a flower recited and described by literati in past dynasties. It is the invisible code of China literati's noble quality, a flower with strong China cultural color, and a compulsory course for photographers to learn photography. With the arrival of digital photography, there are more and more lovers who love lotus photography. In today's environment where documentary and landscape photography are advocated, shooting lotus flowers is considered a very vulgar subject. I live in the countryside, and lotus ponds can be seen everywhere. I often use lotus pats to hone my photography skills and conduct some image experiments. Over time, from patting the lotus to loving and thinking about it, from "Xiao He only shows the sharp corners" to "leaving the residual lotus to listen to the rain", he pats the lotus more than ten times every year, trying various expressions of patting the lotus to achieve his inner understanding of nature. Photography course

First of all, we should understand the inner cultural information of lotus and show the spirituality and charm of nature.

Everything is spiritual. Every stage of the growth process of lotus contains rich connotations and landscapes. At the beginning of life, the spring rain continued, dew fell into the cold pond, the sound of rain was sparse, and colorful lotus leaves floated on the water, leaving crystal drops; Then xinlian produced a cold wave, and the pitch tilted with the wind, and the hanging leaves began to emerge from the water; Around the beginning of June, the small pond began to bloom, and the pedicels with buds were slender, like hibiscus that was about to spit red; The hot summer is the flowering period, and the gorgeous colors are overflowing. After the end of August, the flowering period has gradually ended, only the green lotus is fading, and Hà Thu is red. In the middle of winter, the lotus leaf has gradually withered, and first frost has fallen leaves. Everything is illusory. Therefore, the season of shooting lotus flowers is not limited to the blooming period, but can be shot all year round. For example, the money leaves in the green duckweed in spring and the rain beating on Hà Thu in autumn can give people a unique aesthetic feeling even when the flowers wither. Li Shangyin has a poem: Stay in the lotus and listen to the rain. The withered lotus has a sad beauty and an artistic conception. In winter, the dried lotus is inlaid with snow and wrapped in white, which is unparalleled. How similar are the growth processes of lotus and human beings at various stages? With this in mind, I created The Story of Time. The creation of this group of works starts from the macro, and the tacit words virtually reflect the different stages of the lotus and echo the picture. The circular form implies the cycle of time, the ups and downs of load and the cycle of life.

Second, how to use the equipment in your hand

Sharp tools make good work. This is the principle that many artists, especially photographers, adhere to. We should understand the meaning of "profit" from a macro perspective. Fully understand the advantages and disadvantages of your own equipment, deal with different equipment in different environments, give full play to the advantages of equipment, combine your own creative ideas, and echo your own ideas and creative techniques in order to shoot satisfactory works. According to my own experience, whether it is a wide-angle, telephoto or macro lens, or ordinary zoom, you can create. The key is to understand the imaging properties of the lens. Generally speaking, telephoto lens is suitable for shooting artistic lotus works, suitable for long-distance shooting and easy to produce works, but it limits the photographer's rhythm. I think it's a lazy shot of lotus flowers. Macro lens is suitable for expressing local beauty and depicting details, which can be far or near, and should be a sharp weapon for shooting lotus flowers. For wide-angle lens, it contains a lot of information, and it is not easy to make the picture concise and orderly, so few people try. But if you control this kind of lens with patience and calm mind, your lotus will certainly make great progress in perspective, composition and technology. To sum up, in the process of shooting lotus flowers, don't complain about the equipment in your hand, but find the advantages of each lens and like it from your heart, so as to shoot a work that is integrated inside and outside. In addition, if conditions permit, a close-up ring can be added to the long zoom lens, which not only shortens the shooting distance, but also has unexpected effects besides focusing. At the same time, polarizers and reducers are also worth trying, which will also make your work shine.

Sigma 10-20mm wide-angle lens

Nikon 24mm fixed width shooting

Zeiss 50mm/f 1.4 head shot.