To take a good photo, you must know 5 reasons

Nowadays, more and more people are taking photos, but not many people can take good photos. In fact, there is only one reason between a good photo and a bad one. What kind of reasons can you give yourself when you press the shutter? Now, Brother Kai will tell you these 5 reasons. You can write them down and ask yourself every time you press the shutter.

1. Does this picture have a story?

To be an excellent photographer, every photo will always leave a story. When a photo is recording the story of a person or a period of time, you add life and meaning to the photo. A photo with a story is no longer just an "image" under a photosensitive element, but an emotional communication between the subject and the audience. So before taking a photo, ask yourself, will this photo have a story? Photographers who take photos that can speak are the real masters. The works of photographers such as Cartier-Bresson and other famous photographers all describe the various emotions of the subjects. Photographic objectivity has long been understood as a cold and emotionless record of reproduction. In fact, the choice of angle, the expression of language, the selection of moments and even the cropping of the viewfinder can always bring stories to the picture. Photos with stories are full of humanistic care and the photographer's emotional warmth towards the subject. Such works are truly "valuable" works.

2. Is the current light condition suitable?

Light is a necessary condition for photography. If the light is insufficient, the captured picture will lose a lot of details and will not be clear. In order to get more exposure, you have to slow down the shutter speed or raise the ISO value, but this may also make it impossible to shoot handheld or cause noise. Therefore, when taking a photo, you need to know what light illuminates the subject? From which direction? Is the light intensity sufficient? Do you need to use a flash or other lamps to fill in the light? If you cannot fill in the light, you can only lengthen the exposure. In terms of time, whether a tripod is needed for shooting, etc., if these issues can be considered clearly in an instant, the chance of taking a good picture will be greatly improved. Moreover, light can be divided into hard and soft. To suit different situations, or to express different inner feelings, different light factors need to be taken into consideration. In short, we must pay attention to and learn to use light. If you have clearly considered the two questions of why you took this picture and whether the light under the current conditions can be used to create it accordingly, then your work will be half successful.

3. What is the visual subject in the picture?

After thinking about capturing the content and lighting conditions that the picture wants to convey, the next step is to use your brain to think about the composition and let it convey you well. When it comes to the information you want to express, deciding on the visual subject is the first priority. This visual subject is related to the presentation of the main body of the picture, and often affects the audience's first impression of the work. When you decide where the focus should be based on the composition, you can manually select the autofocus point to ensure accurate focus. After determining the visual subject, it is time to check whether there are other unnecessary elements in the shot that may steal the spotlight from the protagonist. If so, try to avoid them by moving your feet or changing your angle. Or you can use a shallow depth of field to make them less obvious and highlight the subject. Make the subject the most eye-catching visual center of the picture. When you encounter two subjects in the picture that you like very much, don’t be greedy and want to take a photo at once. It is better to take separate photos. Looking at most well-known photography works, the composition and images are generally relatively simple and intuitive. Extraneous elements will destroy the purity of your image and make your shutter look "worthless".

Fourth, can you use some more unique angles to shoot?

Faced with the same scene, more than half of 10 people may take the same picture. If it is a bit exaggerated, Maybe all 10 people take the same photo. Take some popular scenic spots as an example. Once you search for keywords in a search engine, a lot of pictures may look similar, and they all look like "colliding pictures." If you want to create outstanding works, discovering different angles is a required course. Facing the same subject, try to capture it from multiple different angles, and you will surely discover a new world that is unique. For documentary photography, in addition to making some changes in the camera position, you can also make some changes in the shooting stance. These changes will make your work more unique. For example, if you are shooting a set of documentary works about family gatherings, you can shoot two sets of works at the same time, one to observe from the perspective of the elderly, and the other to record from the perspective of children. The two sets of works shot in this way can not only form a more complete story chain, but also allow the photographer to experience the changes in feelings brought about by different identities, making the works more dramatic and conflicting.

5. Why should you take this picture?

This is a very important question and one that must be considered to make your shooting accurate. In short, that’s why you press the shutter. Is this picture beautiful? Is it interesting? Does it remind you of special memories? Or do you want to present a story? Or do you just want to practice a certain shooting technique? Give yourself a reason to press the shutter and give the picture a more concrete meaning.

After this level of thinking, you will realize that no matter whether the picture is good or bad, at least your thoughts are in it, rather than an inexplicable work without a soul. If you don’t even know the reason why you took this picture, then when you select the film in the later stage, this picture will definitely not escape the fate of being deleted or continuing to collect dust on the hard drive. Thinking about why you shot this scene is equivalent to formulating a proposition in your mind for the work in advance and establishing the central idea. Only this picture can have real artistic value and life.