You're listening to Roundtable.
I'm Niu Honglin, joined by Yusheng and Feifei, coming up soon.
Have you ever heard of the boyfriend photography?
We spend so much time coaching our partners on angles and lighting that we believe we've turned them into unpaid content creators.
But when it's the time of truth, Click.
The photo is even still blurry.
What's the problem?
Let's find out.
Lately, the internet has been buzzing with a trend that's as funny as it's oddly heartwarming the so-called boyfriend photography phenomenon.
You've probably seen this photos that are blurry, awkwardly framed, sometimes completely missing the point.
The background is so huge.
You see beautiful, beautiful mountains.
But the main character in the photo, which is supposed to be the girlfriend of this boy, You cannot even.
You can barely see their faces.
Tiny, tiny.
And when it comes to supposed to be very delicious food, which is actually the lead, the reason we're talking about it these days is that it's supposed to be very delicious.
You go to a beautiful, beautiful restaurant with the dish that you carefully chose.
And you even call it beautiful food in Chinese because it's very colorful with different types of fresh ingredients and it's supposed to look both healthy and pretty.
And the shot of your boyfriend.
It's something that you lose appetite instantly.
What is happening?
Why is boyfriend photography such a massive, relatable trend?
That is a little bit negative.
Well, first of all, because they're everywhere.
Name one of the boyfriend quote unquote boyfriends that can successfully take a photo that their partner satisfied with.
And for example, they exist.
I think we have an example here in the studio that he might have a coaching session to all of the boyfriends out there.
Yes, say the name.
Really?
Yusheng, are you that good?
We'll move on to you a bit later.
Let's look at the majority of the boyfriend photographers.
That's exactly the reason I want to talk about this topic.
Yes, please go on.
So first of all, let's set the scene.
I'm one of the victims of this boyfriend photography is that no matter his food when we're going on a date in a very, very beautiful restaurant.
The vibe are right.
The vibe is right.
The music is very beautiful.
The food is presentable on any social media platforms that you can think of.
And then, you know, I dress up for the event.
And then when I said snap a photo, something is wrong.
Either the focus is not on my face, not on the food, or the frame is awkward.
Where is it?
It's a little tin with salt in it.
I don't know how, how you can mess it up.
I mean, the lighting in the restaurant is perfect, you have the phone with the best of the best photography functions, But somehow the food they took is just far from the reality that I saw in that restaurant.
The contrast between reality and result.
The picture in your eyes and the picture they took.
And another example is that a picture taken by one netizens boyfriend captured a bowl of very delicious malatang while the picture as shown by his girlfriend online looks overexposed to a point that the food food ingredients in the bowl no matter what their original colors are they all look suspiciously white and blurry and maybe some sometimes gray especially after everything's mixed together it looks uh okay i understand that yeah uh it's it's like a bowl of Yeah, mushy, mushy dirt or something, mud.
And another example that I often find myself in is that when you are going out traveling and you asked him to take a photo with a beautiful scenery in the background from afar and they somehow like taking a photo for finding the Waldo book.
You can't find where you are.
You're not the only character in the photo.
You're with 200 other people.
Yeah, and when I checked with him, why do you take photo like this?
I'm trying to get the... the best of the landscape in the background as much as possible.
And that's why I have to minimize you into a tiny bit, so that we can get the mountain in the background.
Or a huge, very, very tall pagoda is more important than you.
And you are just tiny, teeny in the photo with the entirety of the pagoda.
And that is not the worst scenario.
The worst scenario is one of our colleagues.
When he takes a photo of his lovely wife and daughter.
The wife could look like she's only with a height of 14 meters.
I don't know how did he find such angle?
But Another very interesting trait we see among those boy photographers is that they can continue to be bad for so many years.
No matter what you do, no matter how many times you tell them, no matter whether or not you've been standing at the exact spot making sure the frame is right, everything is right, and all he needs to do is play the role of a tripod and just click the button.
He still finds a way to fail.
It's like magic.
So I want to ask, do you think it's in their genes?
It's in their DNA?
Because I have seen some really good male photographers as well.
And I've seen a post about a female, a couple, when they're planning their wedding photos.
They hired two photographers, one male and one female, both professional ones, both really, really good.
But you see that, for the female photographer, she was capturing The love between the couple.
It's very sweet.
And you can definitely see that she's been putting in an effort of finding out the beautiful angle of the mostly the bride.
But you see the male photographer, it's also very, very beautiful.
It's just beautiful.
The couple is smaller and, but the vibe is very nice and it's a different vibe.
It's a different vibe.
So do you think it's a matter or it's the difference between aesthetics of male and female?
I'm generalizing a little bit, but you know what I mean.
I think it makes sense, right?
Athletic preferences is absolutely one of the points that when people are choosing, what is the main object in this photo?
So I think, as your example, the male photographer maybe are focusing on the whole design, the whole ratio of the whole photo.
It looks, the whole photo looks good and the couples or the main object is at the correct, the golden ratio, in the part of the photo, while the female photographer is more focusing on the emotions, the main happiness of the couples and they are more, I think, focusing or good at capturing the kind of sense and emotion of the main characters in the photo.
So i think, of course, there are some different, i think, understanding when people are taking photos, different understanding of what a good photo is.
I, i think yeah, and i i think i need to say something for a lot of these male photographers.
One thing is that it really needs a lot of effort.
That is true.
That means that you need to, I think, learn a lot of things.
The angles that you need to take, the color they need to balance, the light that you need to find.
Actually, it is a really important thing that you want when you're taking a picture for your girlfriend, and also the filter, the right filter, that you're using.
A lot of these things are the things they need to learn and understand before you press that button.
So I think, of course, one thing is that the effort that you're putting is the thing that is showing how much you care.
And another is that they actually just don't care, no matter if it's taking the picture of their girlfriend or the picture that they're eating.
It's just, okay, this is a meal that I'm eating.
I'm just showing you the food that I'm eating.
So I don't really need to make it a perfect Instagrammable picture that you are going to post online.
I'm just showing that, okay, I'm eating malatang.
I'm eating several vegetables.
Okay, so going back to the bad boyfriend photographers.
Are we saying that when they take bad pictures, they are not creating or capturing this moment, this lovely moment?
Do we think bad or failed photo mean a bad memory?
Well, not necessarily.
But when you are not thinking about the photo taking process, when you are not holding your phone, your experience is still as gold as it is.
And I think the perspective point is valid because for a lot of mostly boyfriends out there, when they are taking a photo they are thinking about documenting this.
It's not about... Wow, that's a nice word, documenting it.
That's exactly the word popping into the mind.
When a female photographer is trying to take the photo, she's trying to capture that moment of exchange of either eyesights or gestures.
She's trying to capture that moment the relationship the bride or the groom is having.
But for example, my husband, he's just trying to document, okay, this thing exists.
Which is not necessarily a bad thing, because when he puts you in the background, you remember well.
Your face might be blurry, but you can see your face anytime.
Is it alibi evidence?
When you want to look into a mirror.
But when he puts you in the background, you remember where you are.
You remember the architecture, the beautiful mountains and rivers.
So it's, again, not necessarily a bad thing.
And we're not accusing all of the boyfriend photographers.
Since we have a really good example in the studio.
So Yushun, if you have advices to those boyfriends who want to take really good pictures of their girlfriends, who want to capture the moment, to save the beautiful memory as well as a good Instagrammable photo, any suggestions?
Well, of course, I've said some of the theories of when you're when you're taking a picture.
Another thing is that listen to what she said.
Very important.
Clear your mind.
Clear your mind.
Put down all of the idea and theory that you have that you think that is correct.
Just listen to what she said.
Be that kind of tripod.
Then holding the phone.
That they the angle that they want.
That is, I think, the right direction that you should go.
And after millions of pictures that you've taken and that you may understand the preferences of your girlfriend and you can probably take the correct picture that they want.
And I think because we are talking about the pictures and the result of.
The thing that we're getting, right?
So I think that maybe a little bit of blurry, or maybe the bigger landscape, the smaller people, can be the special memory that you two can have.
I mean the perfect picture.
Of course it is good, but maybe a lot some story that you can memorize right.
Maybe that's the little blurry thing.
It is the talking point that when you're looking at this picture again, maybe five years later, you say that OK, that is the position that I talked to for a million times.
But you took that blurry picture for me.
And anyways, we have another story to talk about.
That makes sense, though you know, comparing my photos with my husband's photos when we're traveling to the same spot, my photo is more, As we talked about.
For example, I'm focusing on the framing of that beautiful flower.
But when looking back at photo, for example, two years later, I was thinking... Where was it?
I can't really remember when and why did I take this photo.
But for my husband, who is documenting that moment, it shows specifically, explicitly about exactly where, when and why we take this photo.
And then we can start the conversation about, oh, yeah, remember that time you visit the park?
That's why I said the special framing can probably capture the emotion, the time, even the temperature.
Because maybe you were not doing the perfect pose, but it shows that you were just...
Very sweaty.
But if you're pissing off your girlfriend too much with your bad photography, you can also hire a professional so that they can document the both of you in that beautiful, special location.
And that brings us to the end of today's roundtable.
I'm Niu Henlin with Yuxuan and Fei Fei.
Thank you so much for listening.
We'll see you next time.
