Skip to main content

Good Photographic Theme

R1149451 (Medium)
^A young macho butcher leans on the bench in a rather girlie posture.  The wet market is a convenient shooting location which affords you chances to get good results.

Many fellow photographers prefer shooting in unfamiliar settings which they believe can better ignite creativity.  Contrary to this belief, good photographic themes and actually many great photographs originate from where people are familiar with.  The reason is that familiarity enriches the image with a stronger affection.

Here are some tips on how to discover such themes and work on it:

1) You should have a topical idea about the shooting.  Observation is pivotal to good photographs.  So, be prepared to analyses a scene from different visual perspectives in relation to your theme.   Put the irrelevant information out of the frame, but make sure that there will be sufficient contents in the image to accentuate the theme.

2) For a theme on human conditions, a camera turned on to the continuous shooting mode will stand you a better chance of grabbing the decisive moments.

3) Get yourself into a habit of reading publications about fine arts and good photos.  As time passes, the images will instil in you an ability to see a scene from an artistic view.  At the same time, you will immediately know how a scene has been done and to resist it in your works.

4) Post-processing is not a sin.  It has a history as long as photography.  Post-processing can accent a theme.  You just don't overdo it as to fake a photo.

5) In fact, post-processing can bring a new lease of life to the images which don't look right at first.  It works the biggest wonder on images characteristic of creativity and novelty.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New Low Prices

The window shopping some hours ago has almost provoked my AgIDS illness.  Just in case you’re in Hong Kong or are coming here, and have the money to burn (All in HK$/ body only): GX200 = $3,280 GRD2 = $3,380 LX3 = $3,180 G10 = $3,280 Prices are available form a gear shop on the 1st floor of the Mongkok Computer Centre.   Besides these new low prices, I found that Wing Shing Photo (55-57Sai Yeung Choi St., MK Tel: 2396 6886/ 91-95 Fa Yuen St., MK  Tel: 2396 6885) is offering a Sony A700 + Carl Zeiss Lens package for HK$9,980 (hopefully, a bargain will make it some hundreds cheaper).

Ricoh Camera Giveaways and the New GRD Bet

The recent months have seen Ricoh’s heavy-handed promotional efforts.  Apart from the photo contest in collaboration with Greenpeace concluded some weeks ago in Hong Kong, there are three more chances for aspiring photographers to get free Ricoh cameras.  There are lots of Ricoh's cameras to be given away. (A poster about the photo contest co-organised by Ricoh, Greenpeace and Jurlique for Hong Kong only, which was concluded in May.  Winners are to be awarded with airtickets plus hotel accommodation, several fully-geared GX200 and CX1 cameras) Ninth Ricoh Photo Contest The first one is open to contestants from around the world, namely, the Ninth Ricoh Photo Contest to close on 21 August 2009.  The theme of the contest is easy on the surface, but actually requires some effort to ponder on and express in the final image. The prizes are: Main Award: GR DIGITAL II + optional lenses and accessories (one person) Special Award: GR DIGITAL II (5 person...

Eye Contact

(Leica D-lux 5) The digital era may make it easier to end up with fave shots. Even lousy photos may be turned likable after a few clicks in the post-processing workflow. But if digital advancement or amendments have any bearing on the cultivation of personal style, no photographers will need to discover his or her own photographer’s eye. Undoutedly, this is out of the question. Only with a trained photographer’s eye can we give a thinking gaze and capture an eternal moment, in our unique style. Style is the soul of a great photo. A few posts have been written in GXG to touch on the topic of photographer’s eye. Instead of finding an answer, which would require academic discussions, the posts are intended to give my general reflections and spark interests in moving towards further exploration of the topic.  The posts can be viewed after the links: 1) Photographer's Eye: Storytelling 2) Photographer's Eye: Little Show of Observing 3) Photographer's Eye: Sight-Worthy 4...