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is committed to using photography as a medium to bring the public closer to art
It seems that many people underestimate the value of photography learning on social networks.
Although social networks are a mixed bag, with Internet celebrities, marketing accounts, clickbait partisans, and sugar water films bloggers emerging in an endless stream, it is still the most active, direct, and immediate "film viewing venue" that brings together a large number of high-quality photography and visual art resources. As long as you can conduct visual analysis, you can absorb useful information from it and internalize it into your own photography aesthetic nourishment.
We highly recommend friends who are in the "transitional period" to review and accumulate films through social networks. Compared with mature creators, master works or serious art albums may feel distant, but social networks just provide an easy ladder to enter. Through these high-quality bloggers, you can gradually build your own "visual inspiration library" by following the clues.
Below we will recommend some INS bloggers, analyze the characteristics of some of their works through visual analysis, find out some commonalities between them and photography masters and other works of art, and see what "visual followers" password they have.
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1. Weronika
Maria
Lzdebska
"Gloomy cinematic feeling"
INS Account: ovors
©️Weronika Maria Izdebska
Artist Weronika Maria from Polish Izdebska has multiple identities. In addition to being a freelance photographer, she is also a filmmaker and tattoo artist. She currently lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. From her homepage, we can find that all the photos have a unified visual look, and the whole is filled with a gloomy mood, which is very cinematic.
©️Weronika Maria Izdebska
Tones and Colors
If we analyze this gloomy cinematic feel, we will find that almost all of her works have an obvious color tendency, mostly using cool tones of green gray or black and white. And in terms of tones, they are almost all low-brightness tones, so the whole picture will give people a "cold" feeling.
©️Weronika Maria Izdebska
If we absorb a human face, we will find that even the color of the face is blue-gray
Storyboard Thinking
In addition to the unified visual perception brought by tone and tone, which can give the photo a cinematic feel, if we take a screenshot of her INS page, we can see that there are people, animals, and even some empty scenes in the picture. Through the integration of unified tones and tones, these pictures vaguely create some sense of connection and narrative, just like the storyboards of a movie, giving people the feeling that she is telling a story.
©️Weronika Maria Izdebska INS page screenshot
I need to remind you that although the post-processing can make our works have a color tendency and unify the tone. However, if we want to shoot this kind of cool and emotional work, in addition to matching the model's expression, it is also best to choose a rainy or foggy day in the early stage, which can better enhance the overall atmosphere of the work.
©️Weronika Maria Izdebska
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2. Paola M.Franqu
"Nostalgic texture street"
ins account: monaris_
©️Paola M.Franqu
Paola, a street photographer from Puerto Rico M.Franqu currently lives in New York. She studied law at university and had never considered entering the photography industry before. But the passers-by who passed her in daily life always attracted her to observe, and slowly she began to capture everything she saw on the street. Because of her unique style, she has also attracted many big brands to become her clients.
©️Paola M.Franqu
Learning Master?
Perhaps because she also shoots the streets of New York, her works are reminiscent of Saul Leiter. The telephoto allows different scenes to be superimposed, and the composition is obviously complex but it has the look and feel of a flat oil painting. Moreover, the work does not blindly highlight the subject and highlight the metropolitan temperament, but captures people's subtle expressions and movements, giving the picture a sense of quiet narrative.Paola M. Franqu learned the essence of Saul Leiter - observing quietly in a corner.
©️Saul Leiter
Retro Color Principle
So besides the content of the shoot, where does the retro and nostalgic feeling of her photos come from? We can further analyze the color tendency of her picture and find that the contrast of her picture will be relatively high, and the highlights will shift towards warm colors (yellow, orange). At the same time, some reds and yellows in the picture have relatively high saturation and are more orange-ish. The cold color saturation in the picture will be relatively low. If you look closely, you can find that the dark parts of many works are also relatively dark, and there are even missing details in some places. Therefore, if we want our work to achieve such a look and feel, we can also make adjustments in the later stage through the HSL tool.
©️Paola M.Franqu
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3. Nathan Williams
"Retro Film Tone"
ins account : nathanwilliams
©️Nathan Williams
Nathan Williams is the founder of the lifestyle magazine "KINFOLK" we introduced before, and is also the magazine's editor-in-chief and art director. At the same time, he will also provide image creation for magazines. The retro film texture color grading demonstrated in our "Photography with a High-End Sense" course imitates his tones.
Many people like this style because of its strong flavor of life and the rich colors and textures brought by film. So if we want to achieve such a tonality, we need to start from both the early and late stages.
©️Nathan Williams
Color matching thinking
First of all, we can notice that Nathan Williams’ photos often use adjacent colors such as yellow, brown, green, and warm white, and occasionally small areas of jumping colors. Secondly, the objects photographed are mostly made of more natural materials such as wood, plants, paper, ceramics or rattan. This kind of combination is very common in his magazines, and even the works shot by other creators mostly continue this style.
©️Nathan Williams
Of course, this is related to the life attitude advocated by the magazine. They like to look for the connection between people and nature. We can find that if we are photographing people, most of the protagonists are in the original natural environment, or in an environment closely related to their own lives.
©️Nathan Williams’ selfie in the kitchen, we can feel a messy but real atmosphere of life
Tonal thinking
In terms of tones, most of the works are in mid-tones and dark tones, and the overall tone is warm, and the transition between light and dark is relatively soft, and there will be no areas that are too bright or too dark. People who have a little exposure to film will understand that different films will have color deviations, such as yellow or green, but this has also become a color tendency characteristic of Nathan Williams. Of course, we can only take digital photos through post-processing, and we can add the important graininess of film to the photos to achieve this retro film-like visual look.
©️Nathan Williams
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4. Francesco Sambati
" Polaroid "
ins account : francesco.sambati
©️Francesco Sambati
Photographer Francesco from Italy Sambati likes to use Polaroid to create. Photos taken with Polaroid generally show a brighter tone, a softer look and feel, and lower saturation. This characteristic also gives Francesco Sambati's works an overall quiet and hazy look, with a little bit of melancholy and loneliness.
©️Francesco Sambati
Polaroid is popular with many people, not only for its unique texture, but also because of its simple operation and timeliness. Unlike professional photographers, many people know the equipment well, have the ability and time to create, and have the patience to do post-production output. But they also have a desire for image expression, so at this time, Polaroid, which can get physical photos immediately, has become a good choice.
©️ Francesco Sambati
Polaroid aesthetics
The famous director Andrei Tarkovsky has a series of "Nostalgia Taken by Polaroids". These photos are poetic, hazy and dreamy, recording snapshots of his family when he was living in China, as well as some images of his exile abroad sketch. Wim Wenders, the director who shot " Texas Paris ", also shot many Polaroid works in his early days. Most of them were diary-style snapshots, recording what he saw during his travels, including people, street shots, still lifes, etc., including many behind-the-scenes footage and daily encounters.
©️ Tarkovsky
©️Wim Wenders
Polaroid coloring ideas
If you don’t have a Polaroid camera but like this style, you can actually do a simulation in the later stage. In terms of color adjustment, the contrast of the photo should not be too high, and the darker areas should be noted to be grayish. In terms of color tendency, the highlights of Polaroid film tend to be a little greenish, and the shadows can be slightly shifted toward warm orange to create a contrast.
©️Francesco Sambati
Light and documentary
Another thing to note is that Francesco Sambati’s hazy and atmospheric feeling comes from his use of light. He will let the sun shine directly on the model’s face or body. The model seems to have a "protagonist halo" because part of her body is in obvious highlights. Although this will cause some of the highlights to be overdone or the shadows to look abrupt, it also makes the look special because of the strangeness and documentary feel.
©️Francesco Sambati
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5. Niki Brantmark
"Home Blogger Three Primary Colors"
ins account : myscandinavianhome
©️Niki Brantmark Screenshot of INS page
Among the many bloggers on Instagram, lifestyle photos often attract many fans. These photos do not have a strong visual impact at a glance like many bloggers who shoot "blockbuster" photos, but the details of life they capture are very eye-catching and will make viewers yearn for such a lifestyle.
©️Niki Brantmark
Niki Brantmark can be regarded as the "Nordic style boss" among them. She has won the TOP 10 Instagram interior Vogue and published several books. We have also said before when introducing lifestyle aesthetics magazines that the early stage selection of Nordic style photography is very important. In the photos shared by Niki Brantmark, we can see that the objects in the pictures are mostly made of more natural materials such as wood, cloth, leather or pottery.
©️Niki Brantmark
home blogger’s three primary colors
In terms of color matching, Niki Brantmark also chose the “three primary colors” commonly used by ins home bloggers:
white, brown, green
White (neutral color) is generally used on a large area of the background, making people feel visually simple and pure. Green is usually embellished with plants or edible vegetables, showing a kind of vitality. Brown colors are mostly wood, leather and pottery, adding a bit of weight and warmth to simplicity.
Screenshot of "Photography with a sense of luxury: Practical Photography System Lesson", which systematically analyzes the visual elements of INS home photos. Home bloggers on
ins usually use these three colors because they are safe colors that even ordinary people can easily control. Therefore, many people also choose these colors for home decoration, because they are not easy to go out of style, which is also a design principle. Of course, it doesn’t mean that in addition to these three colors, we can’t add other colors if we want to shoot Nordic style. We just need to pay attention to the control of saturation and avoid using too many hues in one picture.
©️Niki Brantmark
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6. kamosan
"Japanese film"
ins account: kamo_san2
©️kamosan
cold green gray
Photographer kamosan from Japan likes to record every detail of daily life, and the works he shoots are also typical of Japanese film.But compared to the fresh Japanese works that tend to be brighter, his photos tend to be colder and darker, and the tones are more blue-gray.
©️kamosan
Of course, kamosan’s works are not all in dark tones. There are also some photos with bright tones and mid-tones, but they are not as thorough as the traditional fresh Japanese style, with bright tones. If you observe carefully, you will find that even the bright-tone works taken by kamosan still have mid-tones and shadow tones. This also makes him different from ordinary Japanese photography and has a bit more of his own tonality.
©️kamosan
Soft and smooth scattered light
Although kamosan likes to use cold tones, the look and feel conveyed in his works is still gentle. This is because many of his photos use soft light sources such as scattered light and smooth light. Secondly, the subjects he photographed are full of life. Carefully arranged food, neatly arranged fruits and vegetables, and small flowers on the roadside are all things that make people feel friendly.
©️kamosan
Depth of field
Especially when shooting some food, kamosan will occasionally use a large aperture to blur the background and make the food more delicious. The composition is relatively centered, and the picture looks simple and neat, giving people a quiet and healing feeling. This kind of shooting method is very suitable for beginners who don’t know how to shoot food. However, remember that it is best to use a 50mm focal length (or a 2x lens on a mobile phone) to avoid deformation.
©️kamosan
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7. IIona Bankevich
"Emotional Portrait"
ins account: bnkvch
©️Ilona Bankevich
Russian female photographer Ilona Bankevich specializes in shooting emotional portraits. Her works are like a romantic poem. The characters and scenery are like phantoms, flashing past the viewer's eyes. They are beautiful and mysterious, and even have a sense of calm alienation.
©️Ilona Bankevich
Pictorial Photography
From Ilona Bankevich’s works, we can find two influences on her, one is Pictorial Photography and the other is Cold Face. Because of the influence of classical oil paintings, pictorial photography has the characteristics of retro feeling and hazy beauty under visual balance. Moreover, generally speaking, the brightness of oil paintings will be relatively dark and appear pitch black, and some of the photos taken by Ilona Bankevich also reflect these characteristics.
Pre-Raphaelite Painter John William Waterhouse "The Lady of Shalott"
Pre-Raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse "Ophelia"
©️Ilona Bankevich
But unlike the traditional painting style photography which is closer to the characteristics of oil painting, Ilona Bankevich's painting style is more like photography. The characters are not sitting still, but are more instantaneous. This characteristic of traditional art is combined with modern photography to create a somewhat documentary look. Guiding the model's posture and movements is also a commonly used solution in modern portraits.
©️Ilona Bankevich
Cold-faced photography
The second influence on her, the cold-faced style, can be traced back to German New Objectivism. The representative figure August Sand used direct photography to create "specimen-style" portraits. The models' emotions are not exaggerated and exposed, and they do not directly give the audience too many obvious directions. Instead, they can attract people to pay attention to some details - their clothes, hairstyles, and the props in their hands. These give the viewer enough space to imagine, allowing emotions to explode under the calm appearance.
©️Ilona Bankevich
Another thing worth noting is that when shooting similar emotional portraits, you pay great attention to light. When we look at the works of Ilona Bankevich, we can find that the shooting opportunities are mostly cloudy or foggy days. Such weather is a natural soft light mask , which can make the photos look soft and natural. Of course, in addition to natural light, you can also use post-production and small props (such as lighters in the hands of models) to shape some light and create a corresponding atmosphere.
©️Ilona Bankevich
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8. 7th.era
"Highly saturated complementary colors"
ins account number: 7th.era
©️7th.era INS page screenshot
complementary color
th.era is a typical photographer whose works on INS have strong visual impact, and his style is also the target of imitation by many people. There are several common methods to create visual impact, such as using large areas of highly saturated color blocks, using strong light and shadow, or exaggerating scale contrast. 7th.era uses highly saturated complementary colors and high contrast, which brings a strong visual impact. ©️7th.era
Through the photos of 7th.era, we can clearly see that the highly saturated complementary colors he uses are orange and cyan. Cyan is mostly dark and is often used as a background color for large areas, such as the sky, water, or the facade of a building. Orange-red is a small area of bright parts and highlights, which are mostly reflected in lights.
©️7th.era
Because we want to create this contrast between light and dark, most of the photos are taken at night. Although it is a high-impact color tone, because it mainly uses cyan and red-orange, the entire page has a certain sense of visual unity at a glance. This is also a point that ordinary people tend to overlook. If we continue to use some color tendencies or color mixing techniques, when the number of our works reaches a certain amount, we will be able to form our own unique visual characteristics that will be unforgettable.
©️7th.era
However, when using a set of colors as contrasting colors, if we want to highlight highly saturated colors (such as the orange in the 7th.era photo), then we need to weaken the saturation or brightness of the blue-cyan color to act as a foil. This can also prevent the conflict between the two colors from being too strong and maintain relative harmony instead of making the viewer feel dazzling. ——This kind of thinking about color quantity is also explained in detail in the "Visual Principles" course.
©️7th.era
Summary
We cannot deny that allowing the audience to notice your work at a glance on a social platform with a lot of information will inevitably enhance some sensory stimulation. Maybe the works on Instagram are not as deep and can withstand scrutiny as the works shot by the masters. But as long as you dig slowly, you can also find some bloggers who find a balance between business and art, traffic and beauty.
As long as we try to analyze their visual characteristics, we can always find some merits. But I hope that the special features of these bloggers can inspire everyone with the ideas of and , rather than applying them like formulas. We can imitate when learning, but the final core of still pave the way for our creation of .
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