In the previous section, I spent a long time talking about the cognitive aspects of photography, which involved things outside the picture in "Kung Fu is outside the picture". Although extremely important, it is really difficult to understand, and it is far less easy to get started than the skills that can be used directly.

I thought of this when I was thinking about it.

Therefore, in the two chapters of painting and writing, I did not write specifically about skills, so I left the chapter on photography to write together.

Art is interconnected, so the cognitive interpretation written in the previous section applies to writing and drawing as well, both of which are things to understand before getting started.

The more you understand it, the easier it is to walk the road ahead.

After I started shooting with Canon digital cameras, I found that in many so-called professional photography lectures, the most talked about topics were not only the importance of equipment, but also professional concepts such as ISO compensation for white balance, and some dizziness phrases such as the depth of transparency and oil honey that popped up from time to time. Even some friends who dare to try it have a feeling of not knowing where to start.

I don't know if these professional lecturers deliberately say something that people don't understand in order to appear profound, or if they are stupid.

Through reflection, I found that the original intention of many of us to take photos is very simple, that is, we want to leave a moment of growth for our children, family, friends or ourselves, or record a wonderful moment, or the beauty of the scenery around you arouses your desire to take pictures, or you go on a new journey and want to leave a souvenir, etc.

There are not so many complicated ideas.

Therefore, I think that for ordinary people, the importance of equipment should be weakened as much as possible to get started, weakening the concept of aperture shutter fixed focus zoom or something, starting from the small things we can easily do, and becoming a person in the photography door step by step (the sign of becoming a person in the photography door is that there are more and more people who look good).

Therefore, my original intention of photography may seem to deviate from the current trend, because many "photography experts" nowadays pursue the incomprehensibility of what they photograph, which is the opposite of me.

I think it's good to have a photo that makes the people who see it feel good.

Therefore, the purpose of photography should be very simple, which is to take a good photo that we like.

The first thing to know is what makes a good photo?

There is no uniform standard for this.

Just like everyone's definition of deliciousness is different, some people love pasta, some like rice, and some people like bitter, spicy, sweet and sour.

So don't worry about others, just like yourself.

In the same way that I like to summarize when I read books, I think it's easy to know what kind of photos you like.

First, we have to look at it first.

See at least 10,000 photos.

Now that the Internet is so developed, we can find all kinds of subjects that we want to find.

Don't look at the number of 10,000 is too big, in fact, we only need to look at 30 pictures a day, and it will be more than 10,000 in a year.

Enough to turn a person from a novice photographer to half an expert.

The key is persistence, not three minutes of enthusiasm.

The fact that I have been able to achieve a little bit in each of my many hobbies is because of perseverance, including the memoir I'm writing now, a little bit a day, 360,000 words for three months.

You can start with a theme that interests you: landscapes, still lifes, flowers and birds, food, clothing, people, events, etc.

Slowly expand.

Read on and you'll find out what you like and don't like.

Then practice the second step in your preferred style.

Second, take hands-on photos.

This hands-on photo is actually very simple, that is, while watching the film, do it and take it.

My suggestion is to take pictures when you have nothing to do, and then carefully look at the photos taken in the week on a weekly basis, and choose the nine that you are most satisfied with to send to Moments.

No matter how bad the photo is at the beginning, there are always 9 that are slightly better.

Then look at it.

Let's take a picture again.

Slowly down, the 9 selected cards will get better and better.

52 times a year.

Basically, there is no problem with the photograph being selected for the exhibition!

Third, learn to use references!

The reason why I put this item separately as part of the technique is because I think it's very important.

Let's start with the simplest example.

A friend posted a circle of friends saying that the fish I ate today was very big, and attached a photo.

The photo is very clear, and it looks like the chef made it, at least the color and flavor are fine.

But the point is that he only sent pictures of the fish, and we can't imagine how big the fish is.

If I would definitely put the chopsticks on the side of the plate, it would not affect the main body, but also let the people who watched it know that the fish is many times larger than the chopsticks, so that others can know that it is indeed a big fish.

In the case of fish, chopsticks are the reference.

Reference, I don't care how other disciplines interpret it, in photography, my understanding is to say a comparison of a subject.

For a photograph, the subject can be either a person or an object.

A person, standing on the lawn, then the lawn is the reference of the person.

An exhibition of Chinese paintings, surrounded by a group of people looking at it, the painting is the subject, and the person is the reference.

A flower blooms in green leaves, then the green leaves are the reference of this red flower.

A leaf, surrounded by flowers, then the flower is the reference of the leaf.

References are not static.

We decided to go to see a movie, so in order to record the event, if the person is defined as the subject, then the reference can be a theater, it can be a promotional poster, it can be a ticket counter selling delicious food, it can be a unique ticket gate, etc. The choice is yours, your circumstances, and your instincts.

Be sure to trust your instincts.

For example, if you see a beautiful flower, there must be a deep-seated reason, whether it is a sea of flowers that shocks you, or the flower is brightly colored, or you have raised it at home when you were a child and makes you feel kind, etc., there must be a reason.

Then try to capture that feeling.

This feeling is intuition (don't raise the bar), and we need to find this intuition if we want to progress in photography.

Back to the cinematic references.

If you think the poster of this movie is well designed, then when you are standing next to the poster, or when you are alone, you can take a separate picture of the poster and use the poster as the main body.

Maybe you think this theater is very distinctive, then you take the theater.

Maybe you felt that there were too many people at that time, so you just followed them.

There are no laws to these things. It's up to us to do whatever we want.

For example, I'm willing to take pictures of posters and movie ticket stubs.

Look at the poster to know what movie we watched.

Look at the ticket stub to know where we watched it.

Then post a circle of friends.

At the end of the year, check the Moments record, you will know how many movies you watched and where you watched them that year, and if you have more tickets, you can recall who you watched with them.

Therefore, I think that when taking pictures, in addition to those special forms of expression, such as close-ups of people, we should leave references in the picture as much as possible, and learn to refine them.

For the inevitable photography of scenic spots, the reference is even more important, and there are even times when the attraction is the main thing and the talent is the reference.

Remember this separately: the characters and the references should be clear at the same time.

We all make the mistake of always going to the attraction and only taking pictures in front of it. The result of this is that if the scene of the people is incomplete, if the scenery is the whole person, it will be small.

This situation has been experienced by almost everyone who has taken or been photographed.

To avoid this, it is necessary to consciously choose a photo spot that is far away from the landscape.

We must make good use of references and make good comparisons, as the Tao Te Ching 2,000 years ago has already said the importance of comparison in beautiful writing. "There is no symbiosis, difficulty and ease are mutually compatible, the length is dwarfed, the high and the low are inclined to each other, the sound is harmonious, the front and back are with each other, and the constant is also."

Heng also, it shows whether there is difficulty or not, long and short, high and low sound, before and after, these comparisons will always exist.

Fourth, start your photography journey with one of the most basic tips.

Having said so much nonsense ahead, where do beginners start?

Let's start with two photos.

This is a photo of me at random on Baidu, because I didn't leave a name, so I can't contact me, but fortunately, it's only a small loan here, and it shouldn't cause controversy.

Each of us has seen a lot of similar photos like this, and in the photo, this classmate is sorting out the books, and the person's demeanor is captured very well.

Most of us usually focus too much on the people when we take pictures, just like this photographer, so that we more or less ignore the role of the background.

In this photo, the tilt of the bookshelf creates instability in the overall picture composition, which is a professional statement. In other words, such a photo looks uncomfortable, but the average person does not understand the reason for this discomfort, so the same mistake will be made in future photos.

I took the photograph without noticing the background at the time, and it gave the impression that the picture was tilted, as if the house was going to fall down at any moment.

In this photo, I consciously changed the composition so that the edges of the bookshelves are perpendicular to the frame, and the ceiling line of the ceiling is parallel to the frame, so that the whole composition gives people a sense of stability and depth, which makes people look comfortable.

Such scenarios are also common.

There are also such photos found randomly on the Internet, which consciously notice the parallel and vertical lines in the line of sight, so it gives people a very comfortable feeling.

Therefore, when framing and framing photographs, objects such as wall corners, door frames, windows, cabinets, buildings, etc., should be as perpendicular to the frame as possible. Objects such as desks, floor tiles, ceilings, etc., should be as parallel to the frame as possible, so that they will not affect the subject of our photograph.

Of course, if some friends have to pursue twisting force and tension stress according to what was said in the photography lecture, they can also stick to their beliefs.

If you think it's a little useful, you can consciously try it out the next time you take a photo and compare it with your own previous photos, will it feel a little different?

I'm not a teacher, the above are my feelings about learning photography, just for friends to learn from, masters, please detour.

Again, make an important point.

The main reason for the instability of the picture is the way we take pictures, because the things we take are either higher or lower than us, so we are always used to using our mobile phones or cameras to shoot up or down, which is the root of the problem!

Tip: When we take pictures, we should try to keep the phone or camera perpendicular to the ground, and then move the frame straight up and down, adjust the height of the shot with stilts or slight squatting, and pay attention to the camera lens parallel to these lines.

Learning this little trick will allow us to take pictures on many occasions, and the resulting film will at least give people a sense of comfort.

And that means you've already started.

How far the rest can go depends on everyone's persistence.

Fifth, we must carefully select films, but don't delete them easily.

While the digital age has brought us convenience, it has also brought a drawback, which is that it is too easy.

We inadvertently took hundreds of photos, adding one folder after another, and over time, because there were too many, we lost the mood to look at them, but it was not as good as the limited few hundred photos of the original Ricoh era.

So, I think photo selection is very important.

After each photo, copy the good photos taken that day into a separate folder, and select a group of the best ones every week to send to the circle of friends, and there will be benefits if you stick to it.

Knock on the blackboard! While choosing a good film, don't delete it indiscriminately.

Because with the improvement of your horizons, you may find that what you originally thought was an ordinary photo is actually very good from another angle, or it can be cropped into a good film.

It's more likely that what you thought was a general film may have inadvertently taken pictures of something you've used.

It's all wealth.

So you have to choose the film carefully, but don't delete it randomly.

Basically, after doing this, you will not be satisfied with the photos that you thought were good at the previous stage.

Finally, I think that if you want to take pictures, you should have a pattern, don't get entangled in the equipment, don't shoot big scenes first, start with the small scenes around you, slowly move to the middle scenes, and finally go to the big scenes, and then turn around, and use details to reflect the big scenes.

After several iterations, this is the only way to go from beginner to proficient in photography.

To emphasize, this is just my personal opinion!

Last but not least, I like to emphasize that photography is a fact. So one of the principles that I always like to adhere to when making films is to reject P films.

Only a few of my photos have been cropped, except for the deliberate portraits, of course.

Even portraits are against over-beauty. We must be confident, we can't always feel that I am dark, not thin, not tall, not big eyes, etc., and always dissatisfied with ourselves.

When I intervene in my daughter's education, I often say that every child is unique, parents should not always look for role models for their children, you see how good XXX math is, you see how good XXX is in leadership, you see XXX people are masters in the band, etc., etc., etc., we don't want to be XXX second, we want to be XXX first. Don't be the first, be the only one......

It's far away again, back to business.

Opposing the P picture does not mean that post-processing is not needed, especially for those selected good films, if you want to participate in the exhibition, the necessary processing is still needed.

That's where drawing software comes in!