Four golden rules you can break

The “golden rules” of photography are the rules and routines that seniors have summarized and summarized from practice, which are very helpful to our creation.

But in the field of photography art, there has never been an absolutely correct truth, and there has never been a rule that must be obeyed. When you have mastered and become familiar with them, you can try to break them, and there may be new gains. Today, I would like to introduce four “golden rules” that you can not abide by. Only by breaking these conventions and flexibly applying them according to the objective conditions and their own needs can we produce better works.

1、 Keep the picture horizontal

When taking pictures, pay attention to keeping level to avoid imbalance. This is particularly important when the picture contains a large horizontal plane, horizon and other horizontal ruler scenes. As long as you don’t pay attention to it a little, and it deviates by two or three degrees, the oblique feeling of the picture may be very strong:

It can be said that in most cases, it is better to remember the reference level or reference line when shooting to keep the picture level and avoid imbalance. However, when shooting some special subjects, we need to deliberately tilt the picture to create a sense of imbalance – a sense of imbalance. From another perspective, it can also be understood as a sense of movement.

For example, when shooting a racing car with a high-speed shutter, you can take a static picture, but want to reflect the dynamic feeling of the racing car, you can tilt the picture to create a dynamic feeling:

In addition, when there is no significant horizontal line in the picture, even if the camera is tilted, the sense of imbalance is not obvious. You can try tilting the camera to make the picture more vivid.

Especially in vertical shooting, the imbalance caused by tilt will be less. Whether you are shooting buildings or portraits, you can try to tilt the camera and adopt diagonal composition, and you will be surprised!

2、 It is necessary to use the trichotomy method to compose the picture

Those who know a little about composition are familiar with the trichotomy. The three part method is the most concise and effective composition method, and the most widely applicable composition method, which can almost be said to be “all-in-one”. To put it simply, the three-way composition is to divide the picture into nine equal parts with two straight lines horizontally and vertically arranged in the shape of “well”. The four intersections are the most attractive parts of the picture. The main body should be arranged at the intersection:

This composition is so popular that many cameras and mobile phones have their own Jiugong grid reference line, which is convenient for everyone to apply the three-way composition when shooting. It can be said that the three-point method is really easy to use, but not all occasions should use the three-point method. In the following cases, the shooting effect of applying the three-point method may be poor.

For example, the screen is empty and the main body is large. When the picture is empty and the subject is large, the imbalance will be obvious if the subject is not placed in the center of the picture.

Square canvas. Square painting can be said to be the most stable composition, which is also the most suitable for reflecting the beauty of symmetry. Generally, the central composition is better.

Photograph symmetrical objects. When you want to take a symmetrical building or reflection, place the symmetry plane (or symmetry center) in the center of the picture according to the central composition, and the effect is better.

3、 Avoid shooting at noon

The photography industry calls the two periods of sunrise/sunset as the “golden time” of film production, because the sky is the most colorful, the light is the most soft, and the shooting effect is often the best. The opposite is to avoid shooting at noon. Because the midday sun is fierce and hard, it is easy to produce shadows, and the light level is close to the top light, so it is not good to take portraits.

However, this does not mean that noon is not suitable for shooting at all. In fact, the midday sun can create a compact and clear projection, which is very suitable for “playing with shadows”:

In addition, when shooting hot blooded and masculine subjects such as competitive sports and military training, the strong sunlight makes the characters firm, and the thick and clear shadows on the ground set off the overall atmosphere.

4、 The main body should be highlighted

Many people believe that the proportion of the subject’s pictures should be large enough and prominent enough to ensure that the primary and secondary are clear and show the theme and mood of the pictures. This view has two problems. First of all, the subject does not have to be big to stand out. By means of color, light and shade, clear and fuzzy contrast, smaller subjects can stand out as well.

There is also a negative space composition, which uses a large number of clean and concise blank spaces to set off the main body. Although the proportion of the main body is small, it is still very prominent, and a large number of blank spaces make the picture more lasting.

In addition, the subject does not necessarily have to be prominent. The low contrast small fresh portrait is a good attempt. You can try to wear black clothes in a low-key dark environment; Or go the opposite way, wear white clothes in a high-profile environment, weaken the sense of existence of the characters, and integrate into the environment.

The aim of taking such photos is to make a kind of people harmonious with the environment, but the sense of existence is not too low, so the environment should be as clean and simple as possible.

summary

Once again: in the field of photography, there is never a truth that is always correct, and there is no rule that must be obeyed. On the premise of understanding and being familiar with these common sense, we can try to break these thinking stereotypes and take new and unique photos.

After all, everything should be centered on the actual shooting needs – I wonder if this sentence itself belongs to the “golden rule you don’t have to follow”?