To be honest, the topic of how to take a good photo is not my strong suit.

In the same way, it is difficult for me to explain in simple words how to draw a picture and how to write a poem. Because everyone's vision is different and the aesthetic standards are different, it is difficult to find a universal standard, not to mention that photography is not my strong point.

Although I started taking pictures when I was a child, and I started taking pictures by myself after I went to school and work, I didn't really learn photography for a long time, and I should have started a year after I got a digital camera (2016).

Although I have relied on diligence to take some photos that I think are good, I think there is still some time to summarize photography now.

After thinking about it, I still define the topic as: Layman Says Photography.

No matter what the topic is, it can be talked about by a layman.

Because he is a layman, it is natural that he will use the eyes of a layman to see things through the lens; Because I'm a layman, I can't figure out those technical terms, so I don't need to pay attention to those sky-like concepts such as aperture shutter, ISO exposure compensation, white balance, oil honey, transparency depth of field, telephoto, fixed focus, etc.; It is precisely because I am a layman that I often ask myself the simplest question that those photographers should have understood a long time ago: that is, what do you need to know first to take pictures?

I think this is a very important question.

Only by understanding this question can people fully understand how to take pictures.

Maybe it's because of a lot of hobbies, there are always some friends who ask me some technical questions like how to take pictures, maybe I have a secondary school teacher certificate, maybe it's just a good teacher to show off, I basically always want to use simple and easy-to-understand words to explain the techniques I understand, try to let people get started directly, at least let the person who asks understand how to get started.

I looked at this question on Baidu and found that a hundred people might have given two hundred answers. When a person knows that there are 200 answers to a question, his greatest possibility is to be even more confused. As the book says, we have a table to know the time, five tables will not be able to figure out what time it is, if there are 100 tables you will start to think about what life is.

In the face of many of the answers given, because I am a layman, I can't understand the answers that I can't understand.

I couldn't borrow it directly, so I could only think silently on my own, trying to find an answer that I thought was relatively correct.

In my understanding, to emphasize, this is my understanding.

I answered the question of what you need to know first to take a photograph, and I will divide the only answer into two and a half sentences.

The first half of the sentence answers: photography is a record of the past.

Let's diverge our thinking a little bit and imagine what we can do to recall the past. You may immediately say that there are memories, photos, videos, diaries, excavated artifacts, and so on! There is another one that you may not pay much attention to.

I'll show you something.

This photo shows an oil painting by a friend of mine and an art teacher of Qiao, Mr. Cui Xiaoming, of a small river in his hometown that he remembered as a child, to be five, to be exact. When he grew up, he returned to his hometown, found the creek, and painted it.

What about this approach? verygood !

But obviously, the difficulty factor is too great.

Let's choose a simpler one!

Personally, I think photography is the easiest way to record the past besides memory, especially now that mobile phones are becoming more and more powerful.

Memories are simple, but they are slowly forgotten over time. Therefore, photos are more durable than memories, and as long as we don't lose them, then what is recorded on the photos will last forever.

Therefore, the role of a photo is reflected in the future, even if you use it after you have taken it, it is also the future.

No matter what kind of camera we have, whether the pixels are high or low, expensive or cheap, beautiful or ugly, every photo we take is in the past. I can't say that I "clicked" it, and the scene in the photo appeared 20 years later (of course, don't say it too absolutely, maybe after the advancement of science and technology, it can exceed the speed of light, or study some wormhole to master the time curve or something, it is really possible to see the scene in 20 years, and then talk about that time at that time). That is to say, as long as you press the shutter, the time when you look at the photo is already in the past, if you don't take the photo, then that past moment will be traceless until it is forever lost in the depths of your memory.

We can imagine how many things have disappeared or are about to disappear from your memory.

If there are no photos and videos, we can't find back the memory of letting the child ride on our head as a wooden horse, we can't find the little red face when the child went to kindergarten to rehearse the June 1st dance, we can't find the appearance of the child reciting ancient poems in preschool, we can't find the project that the child participated in the sports meeting when he was in elementary school, we can't find the new books and classmates when the child was in junior high school, and we can't find the style of clothes we bought for our daughter for the first time. Of course, they can't find back what the Barbie dolls and transformers they have on the table in their huts are like......

Of course, I can't recall so many bits and pieces more than 50 years later.

There is such a photo, this photo is of an elder brother and his sister, at that time the photo was washed out of the brother was not satisfied, saying that the teeth were lost, it was too ugly. So after 40 years, the two of them took another photo, and this time they know who it is! If you don't have this photo, can you get back to what you looked like back then? I can't get it back.

Coincidentally, at this point, today happens to be her birthday, and I wish her a happy birthday here!

At the same time, I told her that the diary that I gave to me when I was a child that said that I was her brother and she was my sister was still there, and she had never been willing to use it.

The reason why I have taken the trouble to repeat it here is to let everyone know more plainly that if we don't take pictures (don't lift the bar, and other methods are fine), then many of the things that we have experienced will gradually never be remembered again.

So we need to document the past with photographs.

But not everything is worth documenting.

A normal person is likely not to walk, suddenly take out the camera, "click", press the shutter to take a picture, and rarely just get up, sleepily take out the mobile phone to take a selfie for himself, and then post to Moments.

When we want to take a photo, we generally have a motivation, which can also be said to be triggered by a feeling.

No matter how inconspicuous the motive may be.

It may be that you have changed into a new dress, it may be that you have seen the flowers on the side of the road blooming very beautifully, or it may be that you have not seen a friend for a few days suddenly met you, etc., of course, it is also possible that you have seen some scenes of laborers sweating like rain or a small person working hard to make a living, etc., all of which make you want to leave a photo, so you go to take a picture.

Ninety percent of the people finished filming and didn't feel anything.

They didn't really think about it or didn't even realize what the purpose of the picture was.

I just think that when I look at it later, I can see the scene and the characters at that time, and then I can recall the mood at that time.

No one said that I just finished taking it so that I would never see it again, otherwise what would you do with it?

After thinking deeply, I gave the answer to the second half of the question that needs to be understood before photography: the responsibility of a photographer is to make his photos as influential as possible for the future!

Let's not think that the pictures we take have an impact on the future.

Any photo taken by anyone will have an impact on the future, the difference is only the size of the impact.

One day in the future, when you see a picture of your child riding a merry-go-round in the park as a child, you can think of the scene when you led her to have fun, and the smile on your face is the impact.

Even if you take a picture of an inconspicuous cement floor and let people look at it one hundred and eighty years later, they will understand that we still used something called cement to pave the floor, which is of course also an impact.

We definitely want our films to have a bigger impact.

So how can I make the film more impactful, the answer I give is: the most important thing is to try to establish a big picture.

The word pattern can express a lot of content, which is manifested in the heart and mind; It is manifested in learning to understand and learn; It is polite to greet people and things; It is shown that the team members are reliable; The leadership of a team is wisdom, faith, benevolence, courage and strictness...... So what is the pattern in photography? That is the reflection and answer to the question of "photographer's responsibility".

Whatever we do, we have to take some responsibility.

For example, in front of my parents and elders, I am a child, and my responsibility is "filial piety". In front of my children, I am a father, I want to help them grow up, play with them when they are young, teach them to learn knowledge when they are older, send them to school when they are older, teach them to respect teachers and unite with classmates, and not let them be cold and hungry, etc.; In front of friends, there are many responsibilities, one of which is "trustworthiness", if you promise, you must do it, and if you can't do it, you must explain the situation in time; In front of the teacher, I am a student, and my duty is to learn well; With my camera on my back, I'm a photographer, and it's my job to take a nice picture......

Everyone has a pattern, and the pattern of people will also change.

Some will slowly get bigger, and some will slowly get smaller.

In the past, as a photographer, I just wanted to leave a record of my daughter's different years, and slowly, I turned the camera on her classmates, and then I had to think carefully about who else hadn't been photographed at every event.

This process is also the process of my growth.

This process is also the process of my pattern becoming bigger.

When taking photographs, we should try to record as much as possible what we have experienced in the future that we will not regret.

Although there are not many vigorous scenes, there are more ordinary and ordinary trivial things.

I can remind everyone: the most cherished and nostalgic thing in the coming years is the scene that we are now ignoring, such as family, friendship, and youth. So, each of us has to take a moment to think about what we're going to shoot now, that is, what you want to stay.

This is a question that no one else can answer.

Only we know what we want to stay.

The process of thinking, answering, and putting into practice this question is the responsibility of a photographer.

Everyone must remember: the answer to this question is definitely not the same.

It can't be the same.

Everyone has to think hard to come up with your answer, and then follow your heart to take the picture you want to photograph.

My personal answer is to record life.

That's why I'm passionate about photography.

Record the parents, record the children, record the relatives and friends, and record the very ordinary little things that are experiencing now.

Just so that in the future, I can see what is ordinary when I talk about the past tense when "it was just ordinary".

That's the beauty of photography. Sometimes, don't underestimate the role of a photo.

This photo can remind people who won the Outstanding Volunteer Contribution Award that year, and there is no pattern in it;

This photo can let everyone know that sometimes the old clothes we don't use can be donated to people in need, which has a certain effect, of course, this is a small pattern;

This photo allows us to know that behind us, there are people who are silently giving, which can be regarded as a medium pattern, because it is possible that some people will see this photo and pay attention to themselves not littering the next time they do this event;

This "big eyes" photo, which was the publicity logo of the Hope Project, was a household name at the time, and a small photo once touched the hearts of hundreds of millions of Chinese people, and quickly triggered the Hope Project, a significant and far-reaching project across the country, which changed the fate of countless out-of-school children. So don't think a photo doesn't matter.

Learn to think, learn to make your photos express what you want to say.

That's the big picture.

Again, I have devoted an entire chapter to answering the answer to the question of what photography should know in the first place: photography is to record the past, and the photographer's responsibility is to make the photos he takes have as much impact on the future as possible!

Therefore, before you go to learn the shooting skills, you must make your pattern as big as possible.

When we have the concept of pattern in our minds, many problems in photography such as composition, light, light and shade, aperture, shutter, motion mode, etc., will be easily solved.

Those techniques are really not the most important.

In order to recall today's beautiful moments one day in the future, grab our mobile phones, cameras or pen and paper and record today's beautiful moments.

Pushkin once said: everything is instantaneous, everything will pass, and what has passed will become deep nostalgia!