Attention method of shooting sunset portrait

Portrait silhouette at sunset is a common photographic subject, which uses the principle of backlight to express the limbs, scenes and beautiful dusk scenery of portraits.

First, the problems that should be paid attention to

There are two problems to pay attention to when shooting portraits at sunset:

First, the problem of light ratio. Because the angle of sunset light is already very low, the contrast between light and shade of portrait is obvious, especially the backlight angle, which basically becomes a silhouette effect, and the reflector commonly used by filmmakers in daily shooting is not enough to cope with such a large light ratio, and needs the help of flash.

The second is the problem of color temperature. The color temperature of the light in the sunset is warmer. When filling the light, we must pay attention to balance the natural light and the color temperature of the flash, and intervene the color temperature of the flash to be close to the warm color temperature of the sunset.

Pay attention to the light ratio and color temperature when shooting sunset portraits.

Now we begin the magical journey of sunset portrait. First, let's talk about the flash. The requirements for flash are not high. General hot boots flash can be used, Nikon, Canon and Yongnuo can be used.

Universal hot shoe flash

Second, accurately control the exposure.

Our shooting must first solve the exposure problem. How to calculate exposure with flash? Give you a little trick, that is, first determine the ambient light exposure, and then fill the flash. Regardless of the flash, first set the iso of the camera to the lowest, and set the shutter speed to 1/250 seconds (the highest synchronization speed of your camera, if it is faster than this speed, the flash can't flash synchronously), and then determine the environmental aperture value suitable for exposure according to such parameters. Now set up the lamp holder, turn on the flash and start the fill light exposure.

First, solve the exposure problem.

Set the appropriate light loss for your flash to ensure the normal exposure of the protagonist. In this shooting, in order to achieve a proper exposure, two Yongnuo 560 flashlights were used as the main light, each with a light loss of about 3/4, which not only ensured the main exposure, but also shortened the return time of the flashlights.

Third, adjust the color temperature of light.

The color temperature of the flash is about 5400k, while the color temperature of the sunlight in the sunset is about 7000 K. If the white balance setting of the camera is consistent with the sunset, the light emitted by the flash will be pale. In this way, it is necessary to add a warm color temperature chip in front of the flash lamp holder to adjust the color temperature of the flash lamp to be basically the same as the sunset.

Fourth, light shaping.

After the basic exposure problem is solved, the problem of light shaping needs to be solved. In the process of shooting, if the naked light is too hard, you can use a five-in-one reflector, and the light-transmitting plate in the middle is placed in front of the light, and the light-transmitting plate becomes a light-transmitting screen.

The bare lamp wire is too hard, so a transparent plate can be used.

At this time, if the shadow on the dark side of the subject's face is too heavy, you can place a golden reflector in the dark part of the person to make the shadow slightly brighter.

The shadow is too heavy, put a golden reflector in the dark.

With the continuous decline of the sunset, the ambient light is weakening. Photographers only need to slow down the shutter speed to ensure the exposure of the ambient light, and they can continue shooting until the sunset is completed.

Naked lights outline the subject of the characters.

In the sunset, the outline of the protagonist is not as obvious as expected, so a naked lamp with a heated color film is hidden behind the character, which creates a more obvious outline for the figure's back. As you can see, as the sun sets, the background of the photo gradually changes from warm color to cool color, while the exposure of the main body of the character remains basically stable.