Skills of shooting portraits in natural light

Light control has always been the technical core of portrait photography. Compared with the freely controllable lighting system in the shed, the natural light is characterized by the word "nature". You can't control it, but you have the right to choose. Once you master the essentials of choice, it is equivalent to indirectly controlling it and making it serve your shooting.

Light quality

How to choose? Obviously, we must first understand the characteristics of light quality. The light rising in the morning is obviously different from the light sinking at night, which depends on the photographer's hobby and practical experience. As far as the fading evening light is concerned, this kind of light is soft and dramatic, giving people a calm and profound feeling, which is the light that many photographers like. Be sure to pay attention to the transition between highlights and shadows, and don't leave angular shadows on your face. If shooting in a wide space, you'd better find a place to hide from direct light.

Photography: Mark Ducklester

Photography: Lana Kerner

There are several elements created in position, which have important influence on light quality and deserve attention. Such as glow, fog, sparking and so on.

Photography: Maura Loebis

Direction of lighting

Usually, you should shoot along the light (not necessarily the standard frontal light, but often form a specific angle), try to change the angle to get different effects, and carefully control the shadow. Sometimes we need to shoot some creative pictures, but in any case, we should avoid the "dead black" on the model's face-this can only bring unhappiness to the viewer. When shooting portraits with backlight (including side backlight), try to use a reflector to fill the face with light. The key problem is that to try various angles, the distance and angle between camera, light direction and model usually form a complex contrast relationship. Only by practicing hard can you find the right combination-of course there are various combinations.

Please observe the light direction and photographer's angle of the following works:

Photography: Magdalena Bernie

Photography: Jason X2

Photography: Natalie

Photography: Anna Stasija Volkova

scenic

We often hear the expression "dramatic". What does the drama of portrait photography mean? I think it lies in the action contained in the picture and the atmosphere of the focal plane version. The action is realized by the photographer's lens capture ability, while the atmosphere comes from the lighting control.

Natural light shooting can't freely combine the light, and at the same time, you should realize that the light changes at any time, which requires you to accumulate experience in the light changes you usually encounter, and have foresight and predictive ability. There are some special lighting effects that are the panacea to achieve the atmosphere of drama: backlight photography, silhouette photography and extreme silhouette photography-all of which have the effect of creating atmosphere, but they are not enough for drama. It must be assisted by actions, so that the drama can be truly reflected. Scene design, instant grasp, angle arrangement and sensitivity to certain details are all the keys to shooting drama elements.

Photography: Marley Camby

Common theatrical light elements include: the dramatic effect brought by backlight and window light, and the special visual beauty produced by special elements such as shadows, outlines and silhouettes. Please observe the dramatic elements of the following works:

Photography: Maris Ojasu

Photography: Kruno

Photography: Henky Coentchoro

Photography: Andre du plessy

Photography: Hengki Lee

post processing

The post-processing of natural light photography is particularly critical, because there are many things that need to be corrected. Experts suggest that the original data file should be used to store data as much as possible, instead of JPG. RAW retains the original data, which can't be effectively completed in dealing with JPG images in terms of exposure correction, color correction and tolerance adjustment.

—— www.fsbus.com？ In the initial stage of data processing, it is suggested to use original data file processing software such as Lightroom to set exposure and color, so as to make an image file with the least loss. If you have further requirements in the future, you can use tools such as Photoshop to make adjustments.

Photography: David Uzochukwu