Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography and portraiture - How to take good photos if you don't want to learn photography skills systematically?

How to take good photos if you don't want to learn photography skills systematically?

This article is suitable for people who don't like reading a lot, but want to learn to shoot. This paper gives general shooting skills, which can be easily shot in common scenes.

1. Trinity rule

Composition is the arrangement and combination of objects in a painting. The vast majority of "correct" compositions are constructed according to the trichotomy. Divide the picture into three parts vertically and three parts horizontally. Try to "pull" the object to two-thirds of these lines, or even better-to their intersection.

Trigonometry allows the composition to be balanced when there are multiple objects.

2. Choose the best shooting point

Trigonometry is not the only key to success. The second important aspect of successful shooting is the choice of shooting point. The general meaning of this rule is to choose a favorable position that is beneficial to the subject or scene to look the best.

Portraits are usually taken at the height of the model's face (eyes). If the shooting point is too low, there is a high risk of "double chin". If it is too high, the forehead is too big. The best choice is when the "forehead and chin" line is parallel to the plane of the frame.

A top-down shooting takes into account the terrain, and looking up can solve the problem of facial proportion distortion.

When shooting a landscape, please try not to use too low a point, because this will cause foreground objects to blur the background, so the photo will lose its volume and depth and look unsatisfactory.

When shooting animals, you need to shoot from a "horizontal" angle, so it looks more expressive. It is best to take a slightly "extended" zoom shot without a flash.

The skill of choosing a shooting point comes from experience, but it is good to try different choices and analyze what to choose for the lens from any angle.

3. Use scaling accurately

Zoom is the change of focal length of a lens. Most amateur photographers regard zooming as a means to "zoom in" or "move" something. In fact, with the change of focal length, in addition to the proportion of the image, the perspective transmittance will also change.

Increasing the focal length to "stretch" the background may have very positive consequences-cutting off unnecessary distracting objects and blurring the background (so-called "distracting" effect). The longer the focal length we shoot, the more the subject "separates" from the background.

However, don't abuse zoom when shooting traditional scenes, because the increase of focal length will reduce the perspective effect and make the face in the portrait look too wide and peaceful, which seems to stick to the background.

The best focal length for taking portraits is considered as the "telescopic" position of the standard 3x zoom lens of most cameras. When shooting with a smart phone, it is best to use a "zoom" camera.

Pay attention to the light

Light is a photographer's main artistic tool. Light can be natural, artificial, scattered, direct and reflected, cold and warm, front, side and backlight.

Try not to shoot in the light. At the same time, there is a great risk that there is a "black silhouette on a bright background" type of photo, that is, if we shoot someone against a window background, the person's face in the photo will be in a deep shadow. Trying to "stretch" the shadow during processing will lead to a significant decline in image quality. Isn't it easy to choose a shooting point at first so that the subject has enough light?

If we only have one light source, in most cases, the front light will be the best. In other words, when we shoot people, we try to make the light not shine directly on the "forehead" of the subject, but slightly from the side. In this case, it is logical to turn your head slightly to light.

Almost the same suggestions can be made when shooting landscapes. In most cases, the best lighting is from the front to the side (that is, the sun is about 45 degrees behind the photographer). Too much sunlight will produce a dry image with strong contrast. During the regency period (after sunrise 1- 1.5 hours, before sunset 1- 1.5 hours), the colors in the landscape were more balanced.

When shooting indoors, please try to use the window as a light source for natural environment lighting. Try to shoot a person standing at a distance of 1.5-2 meters from the window, and turn his face to the light. The contrast between light and shadow makes the photo expressive.

5. Selection of background

The background is an inseparable part of the photo. In the studio, the background is almost always uniform, so there is no problem-the most important thing is to choose the right color. When shooting in natural conditions (outdoor and indoor), the background can help but hinder the execution of creativity.

When shooting at home, photo frames usually contain unnecessary objects. If you want to arrange a family photo, please arrange a room! The confusion of the background will definitely destroy the overall sense of the picture.

By the way, since we are talking about the background, a logical question arises-why do some photos become clear and some photos become blurred? Clarity and blur are a way to focus the audience's attention on the objects in the picture. In the case of scenery, the viewer almost always wants to consider all the smallest details, so the background in the scenery is usually clear. On the contrary, in portrait painting, in order to make the model's eyes, angles, feelings, experiences, etc. Don't be distracted, it's customary to blur everything except your face.

6. exposure photography

Exposure is the balance of light. If the photo is too dark, it means "underexposure"; If it is too bright, it means "overexposure". The correct exposure level should make the brightness of the object in the photo correspond to that seen by our naked eyes.

When the parts of dark objects and bright objects in the photo are roughly equal, the automatic equipment can successfully set the exposure level, but it may be noticed that when a large bright area (sky, snow) falls into the picture, all other objects are obviously dark. In order to avoid errors in calculating exposure in this case, the exposure compensation function should be used. On the camera, it can be used in all creative modes. The easiest way to use it is in "P" mode (program exposure).

7. Sports photography

The main problem in shooting moving objects is clarity. This is because the subject has time to move obviously during the process of opening the shutter, which is also the reason why the photo looks blurred. This is most common when shooting in automatic mode. To prevent this, you should master the shutter priority mode (S or TV). In this case, we have the opportunity to force an ultra-fast shutter speed, such as11000 seconds. At this shutter speed, even fast-moving objects will be fixed in the image.

For shooting people walking, the shutter speed of1125 seconds is usually enough.

8. Horizon

This method is mainly suitable for landscape photography. Horizontal lines should not divide the frame in half. According to the content of the photo, put it in the middle of the picture, directly above or directly below.

If there are any important objects in the foreground, it is logical to pay more attention to the foreground. In this case, the horizontal line is at the top of the screen.

It can be proved that the horizon in the middle of the picture is reasonable in the photos with water and reflection. In this case, symmetry is beneficial. It can establish a balance between the equally interesting positions at the top and bottom of the photo. Still, it's best to take a step back from the center of the picture.