How to take good photos with a digital camera? . What steps should I pay attention to? I am a beginner.

Excellent photographic works = theme+opportunity+technology+aesthetic ability+expression.

The first is the theme. The so-called theme, personally, is an object that works should reflect or express. Such as war, environmental protection, social life, natural scenery and so on. These topics can be subdivided into several sub-topics according to different contents. For example, the theme of social life can be divided into cultural entertainment theme, medical care theme, folk religion theme and so on. Natural scenery themes can also be divided into famous mountains and rivers, Gobi desert, Jiangnan water towns and other themes.

The theme can be very wide or narrow. A good theme can often make a work catch the reader's eye with its specific connotation in the expression of content. In the world-class photo contest "Holland", some works that reflect the world's focus and hot news, such as the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, will be selected first because of their unique and novel themes. Similarly, a group of stories in "Jie Hailong" reflecting the difficulty of children in poor areas to go to school, as well as those "big eyes" eager to learn, strongly shocked the society and produced the "Hope Project", which became famous for a while. In the field of landscape photography, some films that embody the grandeur of the western regions are relatively easy to impress the judges, thus attracting many photographers to yearn for and flock to the western regions.

Compared with the theme, Populus euphratica in the desert and weeping willows by the river tend to shine more easily. Lamas in Tibet are definitely better than monks in Zhejiang. It can be said that choosing a good theme can often make a work get twice the result with half the effort, because it has laid a good performance object at the beginning of creation. Of course, in the practice of human social life, the subjects needed for photography creation are varied and endless. How to choose something that can make the viewer shine in this complicated subject matter, that is to say, dig out some rare and strange subjects that can come straight to the point in social and cultural life or natural and cultural landscape, and become one of the basic conditions for a photographer to have a keen eye and professional quality.

Talk about opportunities. The difference between photography and painting, which is called "sister art", lies in instant imaging. It is often influenced by many factors such as time, space, climate and surrounding environment. Painting can not be influenced by many external factors, and can be added at will with the painter's rich imagination in the studio. Photography must be created in the specific local environment at that time. Subjective desire can't control the changes of objective scenes at will, but can only actively capture some fleeting image changes in passive waiting, that is, waiting for the emergence of so-called opportunities. In the process of creation, sometimes even if you have a very good theme and come to a very magical and beautiful place, you have to leave regrets, or continue to wait, or go home disappointed, because the weather is not good, there is no ideal light or other objects that can be used to render the scene in time. Sometimes, although it is a common scene, because an unexpected opportunity comes to you when you need it like a fairy's blessing, it arouses your heart, even a burst of ecstasy, so you rush into passion and forget everything ... just want to record this short scene quickly and greedily. Many people have photographed Meili Snow Mountain in Yunnan, and this theme is already a little tired of aesthetics. Almost all the photos show the snow-covered peaks from the same angle. Some light is dull, lacking life breath, and the scenery is boring; There are also mysterious colors, strong and eye-catching colors, supplemented by morning fog and clouds, and the picture is almost eye-catching and unforgettable. Therefore, only by seizing the opportunity to make the ideal light, color and sky give the picture exciting and rich photographic language can it stand out and become a rare masterpiece.

I remember there was a national award-winning work "Seeing this Family" last year. In the picture, a family of three or four people are sitting on a speeding motorcycle, followed by a four-hoofed dog flying desperately. It was so full of fun that people couldn't help laughing. It is also because of this puppy that the picture has been greatly improved and won the favor of the judges. According to the author, at the time of composition, it was just a motorcycle, and such a picture is very common. But suddenly a dog jumped into the picture, and the author quickly seized this godsend opportunity, thus achieving this work. /kloc-in the winter of 0/998, when I was filming "fishing alone in the cold river", a boat happened to appear, which I caught in time and was fixed in the film forever. I was shooting at the Xin 'an River in Jiande, Zhejiang. In the early morning, the river was filled with clouds of white fog. I picked up my camera and took a photo and made a composition. In the distance, a touch of mountain scenery looms in the river fog. Not far away, several fishing boats quietly moored at the bottom left of the picture. As a whole, it constitutes a picture with a strong charm of Jiangnan ink and wash. It's a pity that there is something missing on the left side of the picture, which is too empty. Just then, a small fishing boat appeared on the river through the morning fog. A burst of excitement, without much thought, quickly moved left and right, composing music, metering and focusing in one go. When the ship entered the ideal position, it decisively pressed the shutter and stopped. After a while, the boat disappeared into a dense fog. It is because of this boat that it became the crowning touch of the picture, and this work suddenly added a lot of color.

It is true that opportunity makes photography, a unique art, contingent in the creative process. Photography also needs opportunities, but this opportunity is too rare. In fact, the key is that photographers are good at understanding opportunities, waiting for opportunities, grasping opportunities and catching opportunities in the creative process, and opportunities are often generously given to prepared photographers. Otherwise, opportunities may pass you by unconsciously.

The third is technology. Photography is a basic skill that photographers must possess. Imagine how a photographer can talk about photography creation if he is not familiar with how to operate the camera in his hand. As a photographer, you should know the performance of your opponent's camera like the back of your hand, and be able to skillfully use some basic hardware operation requirements. This is called "man-machine integration". Only in this way, can we make a move at the right time, calmly and orderly, so as not to be in a hurry, make frequent mistakes, and miss the opportunity because of the rapidly changing scene.

Relying on modern high-tech electronic technology, almost all the cameras in photographers' hands now have advanced functions such as automatic metering and autofocus, so it is not a big problem to take a photo with accurate exposure. However, as a photographer, it is best to understand the basic photography and imaging principles of the camera, especially the role of aperture and speed in the imaging principles, the combination changes between them and their impact on imaging, and how to compensate for exposure in different light environments, which is of great significance to photographic art creation.

Secondly, we should understand the coefficient and function of lenses with different focal lengths, the application of camera sensitivity, the adjustment of white balance of digital cameras and how to control highlight overflow when shooting scenes with large light ratio and contrast. Understand the influence of different aperture, focal length and shooting distance on the depth of field, and understand the shooting skills in special environments, such as high light ratio shooting, backlight shooting, dynamic object shooting, night scene shooting and so on. At the same time, you should also master the auxiliary equipment of the camera, such as flash, tripod, cable and some filters. Master the stable posture of hand-held shooting, be good at using props and try to use tripods.

Check all the equipment before going out to shoot every time. In particular, whether the menu settings in digital cameras, such as sensitivity, white balance and image quality accuracy, are in a state of self-confirmation, whether the memory card and digital companion work normally, and whether the battery power is sufficient … these are the best ways to form habits. Once I went out to shoot, because the sensitivity was set to 800 before shooting, and I didn't return to the original state in time after shooting, and then I forgot. After shooting several films, I suddenly felt something was wrong. Why so fast? Several films that have been shot have coarse particles and obvious noise, which greatly affects the picture quality. The losses caused by negligence are sometimes incalculable and even become eternal regrets.

Once you master the photography technology, the Eight Immortals will show their magical power when crossing the sea in future photography creation, and then the topic of aesthetic ability will be involved.

A group of photographers came to the same place to create photos. Some of the photos they took were quite skillful, while others were plain. This is determined by the difference of everyone's aesthetic ability to the scenery and objects in the field of vision. The so-called aesthetics is the process of observing, understanding and refining the scenery and objects, so as to achieve the psychological pleasure of beauty. In this aesthetic process, the individual's inner cultural background, taste style and strong thoughts and feelings are unconsciously combined until the scenery is lyrical and the scene blends, and finally the artistic conception of the work is sublimated. The beautiful Kanas Lake in Xinjiang has attracted many photographers, and I have seen many pictures of this subject. Some excellent photographic works, with proper composition, distinctive theme, striking tone and distant artistic conception, are memorable, which shows the author's ingenuity and profound artistic foundation, which is inseparable from his strong aesthetic ability. Without a profound aesthetic foundation and keen visual observation, it is impossible to create such works. And some photos with the same theme, although the author finally took pains to come to this beautiful place and took a lot of photos, after reading them, he always felt that either the scenery was not recorded truthfully according to the script, the picture composition was messy and the light was dull, or there was no theme, and he took whatever he saw. Without reading the author's introduction, I thought it was taken in a nearby park. This expedition is really a waste.

Rodin said, "Life is not a lack of beauty, but a lack of eyes to find beauty". How to cultivate a pair of eyes that can discover beauty and have a keen observation of similarities and differences with ordinary people is an important part of continuous training and exercise as a photographer.

Photographers should constantly train them to observe objects. Any object, such as a mountain, a tree, a boat, an apple, a glass … should psychologically break its inherent concept of labeling. In your eyes, it is just a line, a color block and a geometric composition. When shooting and framing, according to the needs of composition, fully consider the organic combination of light, tone, line, color and texture, and make a reasonable layout.

In the creation of China's landscape paintings, the sages introduced a very incisive and Zen-like viewpoint, which runs through the creation process of landscape paintings. "Looking at the mountain is the mountain" refers to the author's objective image of the object to be expressed, and "Looking at the mountain is not the mountain" refers to the objective scenery in front of him being re-recognized by the author's subjective aesthetic requirements. At this time, the concept of "mountain" has faded in the author's mind, and the "mountain" seen in front of him is only a part of the picture, and the steps of creation have begun to improve. Next, the author is already "aware of it" and "intended to write", splashing ink, and a work is vividly on the paper. At this time, look at the finished works, whether it is mountains or mountains or water, but the charm of this landscape has been refined by the author, with long artistic conception and strong aesthetic value, which makes the painting reach a high level. This process is worth learning from photography creation, and it has very realistic guiding significance for photography art creation.

The cultivation of aesthetic ability needs constant accumulation in peacetime. In addition to mastering the basic technical skills of photography, we should also establish a wide range of hobbies, such as music, art, literature, history, geography and so on. From which we can learn nutrition and enrich our knowledge. The so-called "Kung Fu is beyond poetry". In this way, in creation, you will naturally feel that analogy is bypassed, inspiration flashes and accumulation is thin.