From the concept and skills of street photography, street sketch (in fact, it is also the concept and skills of documentary photography) is not as "excellent" as most people think, and street photography is just a casual pat. Friends who have been exposed to street sketches know that it is not easy to complete a complete work without arranging and faking. Some people even say that the "success rate" is very low after the street sketch attempt. That's right! The success rate of street sketch is lower than other styles of photography, but it has its unique value. Realistic themes are often more meaningful than romantic things. Street sketch brings us fun and a sense of accomplishment in the shooting process, no less than other types of photography. Natural street sketch observes the subject matter of shooting, and the works of street sketch are either "encounter" or "wait". Taking "naturalization" as the warp and "decisive moment" as the weft is the best interpretation of street sketch. Naturalization is the truth, rejecting artificial arrangements and not limited by the form of painting school. Generally speaking, realistic attention photography mostly has the following elements: 1. Natural contact and frame. 2. Natural light source. As long as it is not the light taken by the photographer, whatever light is in the original scene is natural light. 3> Description of natural scenery and environment. 3. The expressions, movements and shapes of natural characters. 4. Natural creativity and skills. What is the "connotation" of the decisive moment is the essence of street photography, "composition" is its formal packaging, and the integration of connotation and form is the decisive moment. The decisive moment emphasized by Bresson refers to the moment when the integration of form and connotation reaches the highest emotion. Although there is more than one style of street shooting, the decisive moment is still the mainstream of street shooting. The composition concept of street sketch So how should street photography be composed? The composition of modern realistic photos must be combined with connotation. We don't need to be as neat as the painting school. It doesn't matter whether it's chaotic or not, as long as it can help the theme tell stories, then it's no problem. This is probably the biggest difference between photography and painting. Photography has two characteristics, documentary and instant. If you still hold the composition and ideas that imitate the traditional painting style when shooting, and give up the characteristics of photography, it is better to paint more directly. I uploaded this picture: The photographer of street photography said earlier that the photos of street photography are either met or waited, with naturalization as the longitude and decisive moment as the latitude. Therefore, street photography works are obviously composed of two situations: sudden and accessible, so we can use the skills of snapshot, sneak shot, preview and waiting to complete the work ("communication" is also a very important task. Street photography is mainly to shoot the dynamic subject of "people". We have two methods: 1. Take the initiative to approach the subject, and make a composition with the subject as the theme (snap shot, sneak shot). 2. Make a composition first, and then wait for the subject to enter the position we reserved for it (expectation and waiting). So I divide the sources of street photography into three types: 1. We take the initiative like hunting. 2. Good luck. 3. I am waiting. Although street photography is either encountering or waiting, it is actually not as simple as imagined. It requires high shooting skills and personal cultivation, and it also needs to be very familiar with the equipment. A street photographer once said modestly that his work was a "gift from God", but his success was not accidental. If he lacks skill and self-restraint, he will be at a loss even if the shutter opportunity comes. Limitations of AF: How to quickly take photos and make composition in the face of "shutter opportunity"? In fact, what we have to do is to turn people into themes, which depends on personal cultivation. This paper only discusses the operation skills of the camera. "Auto focus is better than no focus, and auto metering is better than no metering." As far as the existing equipment is concerned, this sentence is absolutely a wise saying for street photography, just as important as "dark exposure, bright development" and black and white photography. Electronic cameras are fast, but they are not fast enough when they are really needed. How can I put it? As far as Canon is concerned, Canon's camera has so many focal points. Canon has done so many focus points, not only to let users not be limited by several focus points, but also to be able to focus everywhere, so that users can compose more flexibly and focus more quickly. Their goal is to avoid coke everywhere. For a long time, they just worked hard in the direction of avoiding coke. But experienced users know that there is still a long way to go before the autofocus point can reach the ubiquitous defocus state. The action mode of autofocus is to select the focus first, then lock the subject and release the shutter. These two actions are a waste of time for street sketch, and autofocus still can't respond quickly to objects that suddenly cut in from the side. Furthermore, sneak shots (without looking at the viewfinder composition) are the death point of AF. How to choose the focus without looking at the viewfinder? These reasons will make the autofocus camera miss many shutter opportunities. "Is it difficult for a mechanical camera to operate faster than an automatic camera in street painting?" Yes, as long as you understand the concept of depth of field, the operation speed of mechanical cameras is much faster than that of automatic cameras. The concept of depth of field When it comes to "out of focus", we must first have the concept of "depth of field". Although the lens can only clearly focus on a specific object distance at a time, it is impossible to present a clear image before and after that object distance, but the "resolution" of the human eye is limited, and we can't distinguish a tiny point or circle. This limit is the "allowable fuzzy circle". The so-called "depth of field" refers to the acceptable clear imaging range before and after this clearly focused object distance. The range of depth of field changes regularly. The shorter the focal length of the lens, the deeper the depth of field; The longer the object distance (focusing distance), the deeper the depth of field; The smaller the aperture used, the deeper the depth of field. For this reason, the lens below 50mm has become the favorite of street sketches. The appeal of wide-angle lens and good environmental protection explanation are also the reasons why wide-angle lens is reused in the street. Defocusing How to achieve defocusing? First, if you don't want to focus, set a depth range with the depth scale on the lens or shoot at hyperfocal distance distance. Otherwise, when we use a mechanical camera, we always want to focus, and the action will definitely be slower than that of an automatic camera. The so-called "no defocus" is the ultimate application of the concept of depth of field. I won't mention the complicated depth of field calculation formula here, but just talk about the application of depth of field scale. There are three rows of numbers on the lens of a mechanical camera. Take Leica M 35mm/f2 as an example, the front aperture adjusting ring is not explained much. In the middle is the focus ring, and the number above is the object distance (focal length); The bottom line is the depth of field scale. The numbers on the depth of field scale are symmetrical left and right, and the corresponding object distance (focus ring) marked on it is the depth of field range using the aperture. To use "hyperfocal distance", just aim ∞ at the aperture number we use on the depth of field ruler. If the aperture we use is F8, just aim the center of ∞ at the depth scale "8" and we can shoot in hyperfocal distance. At this time, hyperfocal distance is 5m corresponding to the center, which means that 2.5m is within the maximum ∞ depth of field. In other words, the focus is avoided within this depth of field. When using a 35mm lens, the clear range from 2.5m is often not enough to take a snapshot. At this time, we should make good use of Jing Shenbiao to get a depth range closer to the main body. Let's take 35mm/F2 as an example: rotate the focus ring, and align the number on the distance (it doesn't matter if there is no number) with the O mark. At this time, the distance corresponding to the numbers on both sides of the depth scale is the depth range. If we set the focal length to 3m and use the aperture of F8, the depth of field is about 1.6m-9m, and you can avoid focusing in this range, which is very convenient. As long as you fiddle with the aperture ring and focus ring on the lens and cooperate with the depth of field scale, you can show the relationship between aperture, object distance and depth of field change, and easily "out of focus". The limitations of free metering and AE generally make it difficult for friends who are new to photography to understand the meaning of the sentence "automatic metering is not as fast as free metering". At that time, these friends were confused by the complicated and unnecessary numbers of automatic cameras (electronic cameras don't look unprofessional without doing this, and I quite understand marketing). In fact, do we need such an accurate scale? Do we need some ambiguous metering modes? No, as long as you try, you know you don't need it. Besides, the environment is not static. Maybe one day the exposure meter can think, but not now. So stay awake, don't forget that the exposure meter is only providing data, and the final judgment is more suitable for yourself. Anyway, "no light measurement" still needs light measurement first (if we have confidence in the clear sky exposure method, we can first find an intermediate object in the environment, such as leaves, grass, non-reflective gray walls and so on. ), and if we can't find the intermediate object in the shooting environment, we can start taking pictures ourselves and then add a level of exposure. Of course, the environment is not static, there are light and shadow and different light sources. It sounds complicated, but it's actually not as difficult as expected, not to mention the tolerance of black and white negatives, which is really not easy to make mistakes. Try to measure the surrounding light with a mechanical camera, and you will find that the exposure value of many scenes is similar, and you will have a little idea of exposure after shooting for a while. What kind of light and shadow will be several levels worse? What kind of exposure judgment should be made? Slowly, it will become a reflex action, and even if it encounters complex lighting conditions, it can be judged more accurately and appropriately than the exposure meter, which is also the reason why mechanical cameras make people smart. Automatic cameras are not easy to help us evolve. When we are operating the automatic camera quickly, the numbers on the viewfinder can't help us to judge the difference between light and shadow quickly. The aperture shutter of an automatic camera has too many digital combinations. Sometimes the fancy change of aperture shutter number is actually just different combinations of the same exposure. What's more, the reflective exposure meter measures reflected light, and it is still at a loss when facing objects with different reflectivity. Even the 3D RGB of Nikon F5 can't judge the exposure value in all environments, and it is difficult to get proper exposure because of the location of the subject. Because the photometry is measured by the camera, not by people, these all slow down the speed of exposure. The above words almost all say "no matter how fast autofocus is, it is better than no autofocus;" No matter how fast the automatic metering is, I still feel something is missing. What is this? It is the subject of "man", and man is a conscious animal. When shooting the theme of "people", you must feel with him. If we only pay attention to the cultivation of technology, it is impossible to turn people's subject into a theme. We should start from respecting the subject, and we can't get involved in other people's lives just because we want to finish our little work. If our technology can't let us not interfere with the subject, I'd rather not shoot. What we can't photograph is more beautiful, right?