A powerful camera and a high-resolution lens are not enough to take original and expressive photographs. Very important is the artistic means of the photo to express your intentions. Otherwise, despite the correct viewing angle and shooting quality, your photos will be boring and dull. Therefore, you must first come up with an interesting story you want to tell your viewers and then find a way to make it happen. For example, a photo of a boat on a lake, as well as a fishing rod in hand, can be a story about an exciting evening spent on the lake at sunset.
The subject of the photo
The basic idea behind a good shot is the story expressed in a single shot. It is always present in photographs of landscapes and natural beauty. It could be dawn or sunset, nature awakening at the turn of the season, the excitement of the ocean, a thunderstorm, or the relationship between humans and nature.
The main thing is to correctly represent the main idea of the frame, its emotion. Then the photo will be really interesting.
This is the difference between fine art photography and proof photography. The impersonality of the latter is in contrast to the idea embedded and revealed in the first photograph.
All other means of most accurately reflecting the frame – shutter speed, accuracy, exposure – are designed to convey the clarity of the moment, but without the main idea, you cannot “save” a boring photo.
Only if one finds an interesting topic in photography but fails to translate it to film can one talk about the selection and acquisition of more complex and expensive photographic equipment.
The same applies to compositions. Even if the rules of the triangle and the “golden ratio” are followed and the subject is correctly placed in the frame, the resulting image will not necessarily be expressive or interesting. Composition tools and rules are designed to help you express your ideas in your shots. At the same time, the focus is on the purpose of the story so that the viewer can easily understand the plot. In doing so, it warns him against excessive attention to detail, which is the garbage of photography .
It is also important not to concentrate on shooting genres, emphasizing only landscapes, animals, and people. Interesting frames of artistic photography are interesting because they are unusual due to the variety and depth of the plots embedded therein. If you see something interesting, feel free to grab your lens. Combining different genres can help create interesting shots, but photographers need to be flexible when working across genres.
Appropriate Lighting
The combination of light and shadow enhances the expressiveness of a subject, whether it is nature, animals, or portraits. The most spectacular and powerful lighting is natural light, such as the sun, moon, high clouds, and clear skies, to which the professional photographer must adapt.
The so-called regime hours (one hour before and one hour after sunset and dawn) allow for original and striking photographs. By scheduling your photos within these time limits, you can unlock the secrets of being a photographer without having to process your shots with the help of special programs.
Regime times should not be trusted completely, as they are also subject to the laws of nature, depending on the season and weather conditions.
Lighting should be used as one of the main tools to create an impressive shot and should be used in combination with other methods that give expressiveness.
In this case, additional lighting sources coming from windows and soft side lights can be used. The game of light and shadow on the human face becomes expressive and original. With the help of curtains the main light can be scattered, more enveloping and softer.
Very often silhouettes and shadows look much more expressive than in pictures of people and animals. Art photography implies a collection of basic elements. In it one may have shadows and halftones throughout. It is an interesting and harmonious picture.
Contrast, Contrast in Photography
The game of contrasts and the creation of opposing contrasts, form, size, and texture confrontations in one photo is a way to draw the viewer’s attention to the picture. Big and small, curved and even, light and heavy black and white create the necessary contrast within the same picture.
A neat game of contrast size and form must first occur in the photographer’s mind and then be reflected in the photograph.
The scale of the photograph must take into account that it may not transfer the actual situation to the viewer. For example, a nearby 5000 meter rock removed would be no different than a small hill or hill. To create scale in the frame, comparable objects must be placed – houses, trees, animals, human figures.
For comparison, size and color can be used as well. Femininity and masculinity, poverty and wealth, youth and old age are suitable. Photographers even contrast and contrast the skin of people of different races.
Famous series of pictures are often based on games and contrasts of contrasts.
The Right Perspective
Photographs are designed to convey a plot of the world in three dimensions with a selected two-dimensional image. This poses some difficulties in creating the illusion of a vast array of objects in the picture.
For a spectacular implementation of this task, viewpoints are used.
- Linear;
- Air. Linen viewpoints are based on lines going to the horizon and could be a railroad rail, a road that connects to one point or goes out into the distance. These elements take away the viewer and show the multidimensionality of the photo and it is advisable to use them in the photo.
Linear elements make the photo more dynamic, revive the photo and draw attention to it.
Tones, or airy perspectives, convey a sense of space with blurred lines that hide further situated objects from the viewer.
This is created using the thickness of air, smoke, or fog, which reduces the transparency of the image. A classic example is the edge of a mountaintop hidden by fog.
It should be noted that the prospect itself does not give the frame expressive power, but is used as a means to enhance the originality of the image at the same time as other artistic techniques.
Remember that the camera holds everything in front of it in place. Therefore, carefully examine the area to be photographed to avoid obtaining unnecessary or non-consuming details that destroy the overall concept of the picture.
Multifaceted Composition
Creating a beautiful and original frame is impossible without the use of its multifeset. This means that the image must have a front and a background as well as a primary background. By choosing these three starting points, you can create a unique picture in which the main plot is most harmonious and understandable for the viewer.
For example, the foreground contains flowers and an interesting house contains the central plan. A mountain peak is in the background.
It is very difficult to convey vivid, real life through photography, and we do not know the specific rules.
The variety of frames creates room for imagination – there is always something to consider in a photo. Focus on a clear story line and do not overload it with details. Many small details can cause the plot to be “lost” and the photo to become uninteresting.
It is the combination of planning that allows you to express your main idea using artistic means. Do not rush to photograph a beautiful landscape. It is advisable to first select the points that look more informative, including the foreground, middle ground, and background.
A correct multifaceted composition is logically complete, validated, and brings aesthetic pleasure to the viewer when viewed in detail.
Photographers may intentionally violate the rules of composition in order to shock the viewer, and the resulting provocative photos also attract attention with their “irregularity.”
The skill of the photographer in creating unique and interesting shots is to show ordinary objects from unusual angles, making them interesting pictures with their own inner story. It is these photos that grab the viewer’s attention and should be examined in detail.