How to take a good photo--18/30D'C

Someone asked me:" What is the most important part of Photography?" Most of time, I would answer them:" Color and structure." Indeed, these elements are the main sides of the quality of a picture. Today, I want to talk more about them, and how I communicate with them in my photos.

Like I have mentioned before, my roommate Nancy would probably show up in my blog a lot.  This time, I am going to use the photos I took for her to show you the difference between color and structure.

Look at this one. What do you see in this photo? Slides of pizza? A girl? The baby behind her? Or the black chairs? When I saw this photo first a few days ago, the only thing caught my eyes was how wrong the color was! The temperature of this photo is abnormally warm, and many parts of it such as plates and windows were overexposed. "This can not be right." I told myself," It looks exactly like the photos come out of the filters on my cell photo!" I understand many people at my age like those filters on the smart phone because I am also one of them. When you take a selfie or photos of landscape, you want your photo to be artistic, and you add some philosophical words under it, then post on social media. However, all of these is far away from my requirements of photos in the real camera. As my point of view, a good photo in camera should first be natural. Again, look at this one, the yellowish red light in the dark environment had already laid a foundational color for me before me picked up my camera. I was annoyed, so that I increased the exposure value and try to make Nancy's face as clear as it could be, but I did not notice those light colors made the photo so distorted.

Now, focus on this one. The temperature is much darker in this photo, but most of the details were recorded. You can see the shadows on the plate and light changed gradually from the window along the wall.  Under this circumstance, although the color was still warmer than the reality, the whole photo kept all the valuable elements. You can even feel the motion of the character in the right color. Whenever I look into my photos, some of them can always bring me back to the moment I pressed the shutter. 

Besides the color, structure also plays an extremely crucial role. Both of the photos above were portraits. I  chose to make Nancy the protagonist and put her in the middle of the photos. By setting a big aperture value, I blurred the background in order to emphasis the focus. I like to take photos with big aperture value for people and still life. It is because that is how we look at things in the real life. When we stare at a small flower near the road, our eyes would automatically focus on the flower and reduce the interaction from the surroundings. Simply, the main point of taking a photo to me is catching up with the reality. Good photos are those can provide people the feeling of reading an old book or watching a fantastic movie. If photographers are the translators who translate life in their own views, then structure and color are the best storytellers. They can show you the world even beyond your eyes.

Although these skills of Photography can help me present my moments better, there is another pair of partners who are able to decide the spirit of the photos. Next time, I show you my adventures with them on this 30-Day road. Have a nice week!