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Failed again? Four photo taking tips to calm your girlfriend down

 

“Whether you’re taking pictures for other people, or for your own girlfriend, the biggest risk is to end up with pictures with big faces, short legs, bad lighting or anything else that is unnatural and disdainful. This article will share four tips on taking pictures of people, including shooting angles and shooting poses, so that everyone can avoid the awkward picture fails in the future.”

 

The reason for this column’s existence must be explained before the article begins. Due to the prevalence of K-drama in the past few years, the concept of the “sweet guy” became a rather popular one. Feel free to consult Google on how the “sweet guy” is defined, but basically, in addition to having attractive appearance girls find comfortable, the sweet guy also has to perform caring and considerate deeds on every turn. For instance being an attentive listener, let the girl walk on the inside of the road and taking the initiative to hold her hand… nearly every girl wishes to be under the protection of a gentle and caring “Oppa”.

But… (the keyword But has appeared!) To be blunt, there are not so many sweet guys in the world alright? If you’re a girl, then you’d want to sooner wake up. If you’re a guy, don’t despair despite not having a handsome face. Get a grasp on a few principles, use your heart to decipher the thoughts of girls and what troubles their mind, appropriately showcase thoughtful acts and you will also be upgraded from an accessory to a sweet guy!

We will first approach this on the basis that every girl under the sky likes to take pictures with their phones, not only do they like to take selfies with their phones, it is even better if there’s a “sweet guy” readily available that is willing to be the photographer for them. But if his picture taking skills are lacking, then he’ll immediately fall short of being a sweet guy and be degraded to perhaps a creep. And the worst is that there may not be another chance in the future, so what would you say of the importance of picture taking skills? Especially in the present where smartphone cameras are becoming more and more advanced, for today’s example, we will be using the HTC 10, that has a well-acclaimed camera, most assuredly, taking proper photos is definitely no complicated task. Grasp these useful tips listed below, and you too will be able to take some “gorgeous” shots for her!

Properly utilise high angles, capture slender and graceful proportions of modelling standards

▲ For girls of shorter heights, it is generally desirable to capture perfect proportions through specific photography techniques. Usually shooting from a high angle from top above is a reliable method, not only can it capture a slender proportion but also a smaller, prettier face, in addition to being able to capture the overall dress sense of the shot subject

▲ As a side note, shooting from a low angle can also capture the slimming effect, but beware of the fact that gathers around the neck and chin! Besides… this picture taking pose really does tread the line between being a sweet guy and a creep, so do practice it a few times before you try it out XD


160 to 170! Everyone can be a hot chick with beautiful legs

▲ Having a pair of enviable alluring long legs must be the wish of every pretty girl in the world. And a few pictures taking tips will turn that into reality! First of all, no matter if she’s standing or sitting, remember that she is to keep her legs closed and slightly crossed. The legs will definitely look longer compared to when kept apart.

▲ As for the guy framing the picture, stick to the principle of keeping the feet around the bottom of the frame. To put it simply, try to frame the girl’s feet around the bottom edge of the photo and leave around half the space empty above her head, the visual illusion will make her legs look slightly elongated. And as an additional note, if your phone itself has a built-in wide-angle mode, the leg-stretching effect will look even better!

Grasp the natural, fleeting moments and immediately capture the elegant, literate style

▲ Girls are born to love picture taking, whether they’re walking, dining or even going to the toilet they need to take pictures. But what if you can’t think of anything to shoot, what should you do then? Let’s go the natural route! She doesn’t necessarily have to look into the camera, she can just grab a few small things from beside her and pose naturally using that, the photographer can then go ahead and capture all kinds of her natural looks!

▲ What if she still can’t open up? Then try chatting with her during shooting, or play the jester and make her laugh. In short, try to loosen the presence of the camera, and don’t forget to use the burst mode, you may just capture some right shots!

 

Scared of the face is too dark? Try using the HDR mode!

▲ The most important thing in photography is lighting, as long as there is enough light, even a low-resolution camera can produce decent pictures. But if you must take pictures in a low light environment, then you’ll have to rely on the HDR mode! What HDR does is that it take burst photos under the same environment and layer all the photos together in order to balance the brightness, so you won’t have to worry about taking dark-faced photos in dimmed light environments anymore!

▲The principle behind HDR is not actually important, just remember that enabling the HDR mode will greatly improve the photo’s effect if the surrounding lighting is not enough. However, sometimes if the lighting is uneven, the face will still end up being shadowed poorly. Therefore it is still recommended to take pictures in brighter environments.

Conclusion

 

Aside from the above-listed tips, it is also important for the camera of the phone to meet a certain standard. Especially when today’s phones easily have about ten million pixels above, with some even advertising large aperture and anti-shake mechanisms… functions that are of professional DSLR standards. The HTC 10 used in this article, for example, has functions such as the built-in panning function and optical anti-shake systems that are enough to ensure the quality of photos. In addition to that, the phone also supports wide angle shots, which can further enhance the leg-lengthening effect when taking portraits, which are all helpful in taking pretty pictures that girls will like!

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The huge difference between left and right, is photography composition important?

 

“We hear of the golden ratio, the rule of thirds, but are these seemingly professional methods of composition actually essential to a photographer? Today we will leave these composition rules aside, and look at how characters and objects should be placed in order to achieve the look and feel you desire in your photos.”

 

The general consensus is that composition is something that has to be done right all at once during the photoshoot, however, unless the photo shoot is done in a studio, it is rather difficult to get the composition all settled at once while shooting. There will often be all sorts of reasons that will result in the need to crop the image afterwards during editing to reframe the composition. But how should we approach composition exactly? Many tutorials will speak of the golden ratio, the rule of thirds and complicated things such as perspective composition.

 

But what exactly would be considered a good composition? I, personally, think that all these rules of composition as nothing more than smoke and mirrors. I think that above anything else, images that can “get its point across to the viewers” are to be considered the best kind of compositions.


There are no definitive formulas to photography composition, as there will be all sorts of suitable compositions depending on the different theme and settings of your shots. When I mentioned previously that all these rules are smoke and mirrors, it’s because the real reasons that decide whether a picture looks good or immersive or not should be explored through “cognitive psychology”. Human eyes are prone to trickery, if there is even one hint in an image that can trigger a person’s imagination, that picture can be said to be a “heartfelt” one.

A lot of “professionals” would tell you not to put your subject right in the middle of the frame, because it doesn’t look good. But is that really the case?

It is discovered through cognitive psychology experiments, that test subjects actually mostly prefer compositions where the main subject of the scene is placed right in the middle of a photo. And when the subject is facing the edge of the frame, as in when the dog is facing the left and framed on the left side of the photo (or vice versa), test subjects tend to like it less compared to compositions where the subject is framed in the middle of the shot.

You will find that, after observing the results of these experiments, the elements that actually affect people’s preference of a photo actually has little to do with the rule of thirds or the golden ratio and such. What really attracts people are the imagery formed by the poses and positions of the main subject in the frame. We’ll do a little experiment with the image below:

I have placed Saber right in the middle of this picture, and thanks to the high resolution of the D800E, I am able to crop the image and place her either on the right or the left of the frame without the image becoming too low quality to be used. This Saber figurine also happens to not be looking into the camera, so we can do an experiment here similar to that of the one with the dog.

I crop the image of Saber into the two versions displayed above, one where she’s one third to the left, and the other where she’s one third to the right. Don’t you think these two pictures give out very different vibes? Now let’s add some words to the pictures to further demonstrate the differences these two pictures’ radiates.

When Saber gazes at the middle of the image, the shot will emanate a sense of deep yearning and longing, with the words “how I miss him” is just appropriate.

But what if it’s the other way around? All in a sudden, Saber’s gaze became a crestfallen, dispirited one, much befitting of the words “let’s break up”.

The two images are cropped from the same photo, but because of the different framing of the subject, the direction of the gaze gives the two pictures completely different feelings, appearing from longing to separation within the snap of a finger. So what do you say? Is cropping for composition important? Of course, it is! Because different compositions can completely alter the way an image will be perceived by its audiences.

But are the so-called composition rules important at all?

Look at this image above, where the person is placed right in the middle of the frame, do you find it to be unappealing, uncomfortable and unlikeable?

I would not assume so. No one is going to think twice about the rules when there’s a pretty girl to see. Who cares about composition? Human eyes are easily deceived, so instead of thinking about how to “composite” your images so it follows the rules, you should rather ask yourself this: does the way you crop your photo actually allow it to convey what you want?

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