Photography Experience: Three Elements of Successful Photography

Lead: As the saying goes, success depends on time, place and people. This sentence can also be applied to photography. A successful photo also depends on the weather (weather and timing), geographical location (environment and subject), people and (skills and equipment). And what is the ratio of time, place, people and people? I think it's 40%, 35% and 25%. I believe that you may not agree with this ratio. Please see my opinion.

Photography experience: three elements of a successful photo. Every photo must have a theme. My own opinion is that if the subject is beautiful, the photos will not be too bad (subject 35+weather 15 =50 is qualified). Of course, excellent skills can make the subject more prominent and turn an ordinary photo into a beautiful photo (50 points-> 75 points).

Like this portrait, the exterior is the wind of Lingnan, with Chinese flavor, which is incompatible with the heroine's fashion sense and the weather is not very good. At that time, I was thinking that such a beautiful girl is already the best material. In order to highlight this advantage, I excluded all unnecessary things from the picture, leaving only the most important element-the heroine, so I took a close-up of her. I'm not a person who likes to take pictures of sugar water, but as long as the protagonist looks good, simple headshots can look good.

Some readers may be dissatisfied. Taking good-looking photos requires a good-looking subject. Isn't that a prerequisite for subjectivity? Can't you take pictures if the subject is not beautiful? In fact, the uniqueness of aesthetics lies in that everyone has different principles of beauty and has his own set of aesthetic standards. Moreover, I 100% believe that everything has a good side, and the difference is whether you can see it or not. I like the movie American Beauty. There is a plot in it that I like very much: even a garbage plastic bag can be beautiful as long as you understand and appreciate it. In the world of photography, looking for the beautiful side of things is a kind of photographic eye.

About .25% of skills and equipment, what is the ratio between them? The answer is 20% skill and 5% equipment. I always thought that no matter what equipment I used, I could still take beautiful photos, but I was satisfied with which brand type. Of course, some topics require higher equipment (such as sports/ecology), but it doesn't mean that entry-level equipment can't cover them, and only higher skills are needed to make up for them; The advantage of advanced equipment lies in improving the convenience of use and the success rate of shooting, and whether a photo is beautiful or not always depends on technology. This 5% is used to indicate whether you have found the equipment that suits you and can be used safely, not the series of equipment (for advanced equipment, you can go very high and far, such as Hasselblad, Leica, Alpa and other large equipment, which is really behind the scenes and hurts people's money). Therefore, whether there is such a thing as buying machines to send technology in this world, my answer isno. Speaking of this, I have no objection to the pursuit of equipment, because I like to play with equipment myself. It is a kind of interest, which is different from the pursuit of skills and can complement each other. Man-machine harmony means that the equipment on the opponent has become a part of the photographer's body, and shooting is as natural as breathing.

Assuming that the geographical location and people get full marks, plus the weather of 15 (35+ 25+ 15 = 75), it is already a very good photo. So, how to make a good photo and look at it separately? Wow? What about the outstanding and vigorous works? The answer is weather. Here are two aspects: lighting (20%) and decisive moment (20%). Photography is not so much capturing the subject as capturing the light hitting the subject. Because what we see is actually light, and we can't see anything without light. However, the light is unpredictable with time and weather, which leads to different intensity, angle and temperature (color temperature), thus affecting the shooting effect. The difficulty of lighting is that these changes are beyond our control and can only be accepted and adapted (except artificial light sources). I believe everyone has had similar experiences. I traveled to beautiful scenic spots, but I was disappointed when it rained. I couldn't take the photos I wanted. Besides, sometimes it takes a lot of effort to find that beautiful light. For example, Will Cho's photos of the Milky Way are impossible to see in the urban areas with serious light damage, and can only be taken in the suburbs such as Rudong and Dadongshan, while on sunny days, they can only be taken after midnight. I also want to shoot the Milky Way, but I can't leave my wife and son. I can't help it

As for the decisive moment, it is the most difficult. Many times, the wonderful moments are fleeting, and if you miss them, you will never have a chance to shoot again. Many classic works in the history of photography have captured decisive moments. Although I'm just a photography enthusiast, no master can capture the instant touch, but I also share an unforgettable experience here. It was a trip to Mei Yingxue in Hokkaido. We took a photo tour of the hotel. We set off in the morning and arrived at the first scenic spot, Niu Primary School. The sky is overcast, and I think the weather is bad. This day's trip is over. Then we went to another famous scenic spot, the Christmas tree, and the weather was still similar. Although it is a little regrettable, we feel very satisfied to enjoy the winter scenery of Hokkaido in person. At this time, something magical happened. The weather began to clear up, the gray disappeared and the blue began to appear. The clouds in the sky are still there, but they have changed from gray to white. A very beautiful picture appeared before our eyes. Like snow, the sky is pure white in soft light. The Christmas tree lay quietly on the canvas, set off perfectly. While feeling quiet and harmonious, we admire the ingenuity of nature. This photo, for me, is hard-won. I don't know if there is any chance to see such scenery again and take such photos.