Rebirth of top photographers

Chapter 140 The real black and white world (with color)

"Hello, are you Mr. Chen Pingsheng? I am a reporter from Southern Metropolis Daily. Could you please accept an interview?"

"Sorry, I don't plan to be interviewed for the time being, thank you."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Pingsheng scratched his head. This was already the eighth reporter's call he had received recently.

But he didn't agree, because now was not the time. It would be best to wait until the work was about to be published or the exhibition was about to be held before accepting an interview.And he doesn't want to expand his reputation too much or become too famous, which would be a constraint for filming.

Besides, he doesn't have time to do anything else right now.

Chen Pingsheng had already visited the museum, and the scene was more suitable for taking pictures than he expected. Then he immediately contacted Boss Lin to rent a large-format camera.

Now he is exercising in the gym and has naturally used the fitness coupons.Recently, he is training his abdominal muscles. He does the abdominal muscle tearer every two days and feels pain and relief in his waist muscles.

I don’t know when I will be able to develop abdominal muscles and vest lines with sufficiently obvious contours.

After exercising, he drank some water, changed his clothes, took his bag and rushed to the Xijiao Studio.

"Uncle Lin." When he arrived at the store, Chen Pingsheng squeezed through the girls who came to take photos and buy cameras, and said hello to Boss Lin who was busy at the front desk.

"Xiao Chen is here, wait a moment." Boss Lin turned around and said, and then recommended to the girl with pink hair in front of him: "You can just use this ccd, it is simple and produces movies, look at this The noise is so retro.”

Chen Pingsheng almost laughed out loud. Something as old as CCD has become popular again because of the popularity of these girls who love retro beauty.

After all, compared to the weight of normal cameras, CCDs are small and portable, making them very suitable for girls to use.

However, even though Chen Pingsheng had been here for so long, none of these people recognized him. This also shows that the photography community and the hobby of taking pictures are actually two different groups.

Boss Lin couldn't stop when he was busy. Many people were inquiring about the price and parameters of the camera, and some kept posing for photos under the posters arranged in advance. The lively atmosphere even made Chen Pingsheng take off his scarf. Wiped away the sweat.

At this moment, the door of Xijiao Studio was pushed open, and Lin Zishan, wearing a thick down jacket, walked in with his suitcase.

"Simu! You're back!" The girls picking up cameras next to her immediately came forward to greet her and help her with her luggage.

"Simu, when will you take pictures for me?"

"Yes, Simu, I saw your recent photos. They are so beautiful. I want to take them too!"

Lin Zishan responded one by one, telling them not to rush, as his work schedule was already half a month away, and he would take photos for them when he was done during this period.

Ever since Chen Pingsheng told her about this path of film portraits, she immediately took advantage of it.

After all, the girls who come to the film store are high-quality customers who are willing to spend money and time.

Moreover, if we meet often and become mature people, business will be easier to do.

I have to say that this mind is indeed very flexible and knows how to use its own advantages.Boss Lin also often said that Lin Zishan was nothing like him, it was just his IQ that he inherited.

Chen Pingsheng thought to himself that luckily he didn't look like Boss Lin in terms of appearance.

As he was cursing, a voice suddenly sounded above his head.

"Master Chen, why are you here?" Lin Zishan took off his down jacket and looked at Chen Pingsheng in surprise.

"I'm here to rent a camera." Next to the sofa where Chen Pingsheng was sitting was the clothes rack. He watched Simu hang the clothes on it and moved his position back.

Lin Zishan immediately sat down and said, "Congratulations on winning the award."

"You already said it on WeChat." Chen Pingsheng reminded her.

"That's different from saying it in person." Lin Zishan shook his head slightly, with a very insistent expression.

"Okay, congratulations to you too." Chen Pingsheng returned the words to her.

"What are you congratulating me for?" Lin Zishan opened his eyes wide and was a little confused.

"Now that so many people are looking for you to take pictures, it means you are on the right track." Chen Pingsheng laughed and pointed at the people around him.

"Hey, it's just a small fight." Lin Zishan was a little proud when she said this. After all, more and more people have been asking her to take pictures recently, which has greatly improved her self-confidence.

"Simu, you're back!" The two were chatting when Boss Lin suddenly came over: "Daughter, help Dad deal with it while I get Xiao Chen a camera."

Chen Pingsheng smiled secretly. It seemed that the name Simu had been recognized by everyone.

"Okay." When Lin Zishan heard the request, he immediately agreed and went to help his father look after the store.

"Let's go, Xiao Chen, the camera is on the second floor." Boss Lin led Chen Pingsheng up to the second floor.Then he took out a large red and silver "box" from a black bag.

"What is this?" It was also the first time for Chen Pingsheng to see a large-format camera with his own eyes, so he was a little curious about its shape.

From the appearance point of view, this is a square iron box, with a red paint surface and a silver frame. It looks more like some kind of cosmetic box or safe, not like a camera at all.

"I got this thing for the first time yesterday and tried it out. The design is amazing." Boss Lin praised it and then opened the box.

"Click."

As the cover opened, Boss Lin pulled out the lens composed of a black leather chamber and rails, and matched it with the body that looked like a box. Linhaft Artifact 45 finally revealed its true appearance.

Chen Pingsheng touched the camera in amazement and felt that it was really a perfect handicraft.

"Hey, aren't you very handsome?" Boss Lin asked with a smile.

"Really, is this camera for sale?" Chen Pingsheng asked.

"You and I want to go together." Boss Lin shook his head: "I also asked Lao Sui, but he didn't sell it. He said that after you use it, he would give it to you." "Offer it?" Chen Pingsheng said. "Tsk, tsk" he said twice: "Don't, I'm not yet at the point where I can be an ancestor."

"Haha." Boss Lin patted him on the shoulder and said, "Okay, take a look. There are instructions here. If you don't understand, just tell me and I'll ask Lao Sui."

"Okay." Chen Pingsheng sat on the chair, picked up the manual and read it.

Boss Lin went downstairs to help his daughter.

It's not complicated. Chen Pingsheng read it carefully twice and tried it again.After all, large format cameras are mainly large enough, and their functions are not much different from medium format film cameras.Except for the tilt-shift function, which requires familiarity, nothing else can stump him.

After more than ten minutes of using it, Chen Pingsheng was already proficient.

After touching for a while, he closed the camera and turned it into a box again, carrying it back and forth for two steps.

"It's really good." He said to himself, his words full of excitement for new things.

Now that we have our cameras ready, we can start taking pictures of the museum.

…………

"Xiao Chen, how do you think these lights should be adjusted?" The next afternoon, inside the South China Museum of Natural History.In the hall where the exhibition has not yet started, Chen Pingsheng and Director Zou were standing in front of the animal and plant specimens, looking at the lights hanging from the surrounding ceilings.

What they saw before them was a hand-painted background with mountains and lush greenery, depicting a very rare natural scenery.Director Zou told him that the geology in the painting was exactly what the world looked like tens of thousands of years ago, which was very different from now.

Nearby, they could see a leopard raising its head and looking at the distant mountain peaks. It seemed to be resting and searching for prey.

Chen Pingsheng looked at the overall environment and already had some initial thoughts on adjustments, so he said: "Now these lights are mainly hung in a too straight position. Although the environment created is indeed very suitable for the museum, you can see those The shadows are all gathered at the feet, there are no layers.”

"Well, what you said is true, then should we change the light source a little bit?"

"I think we need to make the overall environment brighter, and then use point lights to create different shadows to make the whole picture more three-dimensional." Chen Pingsheng and Director Zou talked for half an hour, from beginning to end, Director Zou Keep nodding and writing these things down.

After the exchange about lighting was over, Director Zou asked again: "Xiao Chen, what is that in your hand?"

Chen Pingsheng raised the Linhaff camera in his hand and said: "This is the main force of this photography, a large-format film camera."

"Film?" Curator Zou asked curiously: "Why shoot on film? I think digital is about the same."

Chen Pingsheng explained: "Because I want to shoot in black and white, and I need more details, and the pixels and frame of digital are very limited, so it's not as good as this."

"Black and white, why use black and white?" Director Zou was a little strange. Wouldn't it be better to take this kind of photo in color?

Chen Pingsheng smiled and said: "Director Zou, what do you think is your first impression when you look at these specimens on display? Are they real or fake?"

"Real? False?" He repeated, then looked at the specimen of the primitive man nearby and said: "Although we try our best to give the audience a real feeling, I think if we need to judge the authenticity, then the audience must It will still feel fake, which is inevitable.”

"That's right." Chen Pingsheng nodded and continued: "Why do the audience think it's fake? Is it because the specimens are all fake? I think this is just one of the reasons. In fact, the main factors that affect our judgment of the authenticity of things themselves are It is composed of a few basic elements.”

He walked to the specimen and said: "For example, color, smell, image, these are our basic understandings of the world. When we see colorful things, we will inevitably compare them with the colors of the real world. If vision or luster If it’s not right, we’ll subconsciously think it’s false.”

"And if the smell we smell doesn't match our impression, we will also view it as questionable and false."

"Yes, people actually judge something based on past experience, whether something is real or not." Director Zou agreed.

Then Chen Pingsheng smiled: "So, Director Zou, if we see a black and white world, how do we judge the falsehood?"

"A black and white world?" The old man in front of him raised his head and thought for a moment, then said, "Since the dimension of color is missing, we can only use past impressions and smells to make judgments."

"This is the reason why I chose black and white film." Chen Pingsheng said, pointing to the hand-painted background in the exhibition: "No matter how hard I try to restore the colors, these specimens still cannot achieve the real-world effect in the lens. The audience can easily pass through the Compare with reality to find out the flaws in the photo to determine its authenticity. But the black and white world is a world that we cannot usually see. If we make a comparison, there is only one latitude."

"What dimension?" Director Zou was completely immersed in Chen Pingsheng's thoughts. He felt that what the young man was talking about at this moment seemed to be an important photography concept.

"The same black and white photo." Chen Pingsheng told the answer.

After a pause, he continued: "Because the black and white world does not have an established impression in our minds, if we want to judge whether the world in the black and white photos is consistent with reality, we can only use other black and white photos and the images in the photos. .”

"But what if we still have no established understanding of these images? For example, these specimens, the audience is just ordinary people, they have never seen these prehistoric creatures. So, without reference, can we think that the ones in the photos are Is the thing real?”

To be honest, this is quite convoluted.Even Director Zou thought for a moment before he understood the logic.

Then he couldn't help but admire: "So you want to use black and white photos to show the prehistoric world and make the audience feel that this is real?"

"To be precise, it makes the audience unable to distinguish between truth and fiction." Chen Pingsheng tried his best to break up the words.

"When the audience sees a black and white photo, they first lose the judgment dimension of color. Then their first reaction must be to compare the photos they have seen before and the scenery in the photo. And if the scenery in the photo does not exist In his memory, he once again loses a dimension of judgment. Only in this way can he believe that everything in the photo is real.

"These prehistoric civilizations and prehistoric stories have become reality in his eyes. Or a false reality. Because he knows that these are scenes restored by scientists and archaeologists, but because he lacks the dimension of judgment , so he visually thinks that this is real. This will cause the audience to constantly wander between reality and falsehood.

"What I need is such a conflict to make the audience realize that these creatures once really existed and are not just human fantasies."

Chen Pingsheng explained his creative concept, and Director Zou couldn't help but applaud.

"What a wonderful idea, Xiao Chen. No wonder you won the competition award. I think your depth of thought has surpassed many people." He just tried to use fantasy to take away the colors from the exhibition in front of him, and suddenly found what he said to Chen Pingsheng. Perfect match.

When the color of the specimens and background fades away, the entire prehistoric world suddenly becomes vivid.

It seems that for a moment, these stories happened to those animals under the same background.

This made him look forward to the photos after the shooting.

If this effect can really be achieved, he feels that there may be a place for Chen Pingsheng in next year's qualifying competition.

(End of this chapter)