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Basic photography tips for beginners

admin July 25,2017

Art in general and photography, in particular, are experiencing an exciting and challenging time with the rapid change of technology. The Internet offers great freedom when everyone can receive and give whatever they want to the world. According to Mashable, as for July of 2014, there are nearly 1.4 billion Facebook users whose photos on Facebook are more than 350 million. The total number of photos in Facebook’s server has reached more than 300 billion, and the total number of photos of all humanity was more than 3800 billion. Every year, you and I still contribute more than 300 billion photos more.

When I first heard the numbers, I must confess that I was still quite shocked. Photography has become one of the indispensable routine activities, a basic need in the developing and developed world, a favorite hobby of all time.

For many beginners, taking photos cannot be as difficult as music, art; but it’s a bit confusing because they do not know how to start, so in this article, I hope to help many people with my own experience.

Do not learn Photoshop first.

This advice is from me who used and retouched a lot of photos, not words; Boycott and anti-Photoshop. The very first thing you need to do is learning basic techniques such as composition, lines, contrast, color mixture, light, the angle of view, and aesthetic training. During this period of time, your skills would not be perfect. In case, you are harried to learn to retouch the image right away overlook the last skills.

However, in the long run, the beginner tends to be and satisfied dependent because they think that learning about photography is not necessary. Another bad thing I noticed is that the beginner does not want to learn about photography carefully, they often look for short paths because, in their subconscious mind, image retouching is just one part of photography. Looking back their photos after three years, five years, they seem still unchanged.

Everyone, especially the outsider should have a more correct and objective view on the image retouching. We can create a beautiful picture from the vision and careful preparation of the photographer in three inseparable steps: Pre-production, production, and post-production which we need to decide before shooting.

Do not be so worried about equipment.

Equipment is very important, but it is for professionals! They need to affirm themselves with good and reputable gadgets, they need to meet big customers’ demands of stability, accurateness, and certainty. They need special functions that the amateur user may never care.

For the majority of photographers, the best camera is the camera they have, whether it’s an expensive camera, a cheap camera or a phone. Taking pictures is fun and it should bring joy, if not why we do waste time for stress and fatigue right? Do not let the gadgets be the anchor that decelerate progress and eagerness by sentences: when do I have enough money to buy a camera or I will do it when I have it; however, when you overcome this period, you will find great to take pictures with a lot of fun.

Do not take pictures as usual.

The photos that we take at eye level when the person standing on the ground are the most boring photographs. Because in ordinary sceneries, people tend to take pictures regularly owing to convenience, or thoughtless. In this regard, we can learn in classes or books. Yes, but within this article, my advice is just to test. The test is half the joy of taking pictures when I can move back, away; sit down; lie down, turn left, right; climb on the tree, change the lens to another focus; The power of digital cameras lies in the endlessness of testing to learn, to improve your progress. Just the interesting corner, normal scenes can also become attractive.

Do not be afraid of mistakes and criticisms

No one becomes great one night, one week, one month, one year or even ten years. I do not think there is an absolute genius or initiation in photography as in other fields such as music, art; All of them throw themselves into the unknown trials. They grope themselves and feel exciting when they are successful. What distinguishes them from other ordinary people is that they never stop. Only when we face the highest challenge, we can reach a new level. Moreover,  if we fail, we can also get invaluable lessons.

Photography is like bodybuilding if you do not change your weight challenge, your muscles will not grow as your expectations.

Do not ignore your experiments, but let your friends and experienced photo lovers comment and give suggestions because they will have more objective views and comments than us. As long as you do not let negative comments stop you.

Perceive knowledge with a conscious head

Not everyone else (even who are more experienced than you) or the internet is always right. For example, many people advise the beginner to take photos in raw format. However when I asked them they could not know why. They just say that it helps to save the too bright photos!

When you shoot a photo, the first image is saved in RAW format, then it up to the sensor. The RAW files will be converted to JPEG images. Because the RAW images are original its color, contrast, and frequency bands are brighter; But it does not mean to use it all the time like the above advice, especially with the beginner. This is human psychology, the more likely it is to retouch, the more likely they are to do it fast. In addition, not all photos need to use the power of RAW because it will cause heavy memory. So, get all the advice with a conscious head,  learn more information, and experiment to find the most effective way.

Travel which is a good way to learn photography

In fact, we are all the same, learning with texts is more boring than the visual things. Like pulling out a book to learn English with watching the English movies to learn English.

People have said that: grass is always greener on the other side; Although the everyday living environment is not lack of motifs and interesting views because they are so familiar, naturally we feel bored and lament that there is nothing to capture. Let take advantage of every opportunity to travel to new landscapes, environments, stories, and people to learn and find inspiration.

Read

Light, types of light and how it affects human mood.

Color theory, color mixture, the symbolism of color, and color narration.

History of photography, history of art, film history, art movements.

Anatomy and physiology of the human body.- Photographic Myths and their photographs.

Composition, lines, contrast, depth. Photography techniques

Understand deeply about the field you pursue, not just photography techniques. A fashion photographer must understand the fashion, its history, fashion terms, and fashion trends. A press photographer needs to he contents of the press, social, editorial, political.

Even masters, they never stop learning.

Do not be afraid to receive inspiration and imitation

To me to receive inspiration from the photographer you love is an important part of the learning process. I realize that there are photographers who I have fallen out of love for. And my aesthetic eye has gradually changed, shaping itself; But there are people I still admire and love their photos. When I look back on the path and change in my photos, I see many milestones. It is great!