How to shoot portraits in natural light?

Portrait photography can be done not only in professional photo studios. It is very interesting to shoot people in people's life and work or just under the "aiming" lens of the camera, which is called eco-photography. The image generated from the image obtained in this process must reveal the essence of the photographic object and tell a person's story with a picture.

1. Plan ahead. Before traveling, especially in remote and exotic places, the first thing to do is to plan everything. In order to fully (correctly) convey the uniqueness of a culture, you need to prepare and study its characteristics, and then people's photos will be natural, but at the same time distinctive, and strongly emphasize the uniqueness of the place. It is also worth considering whether it is necessary for you to get permission to shoot in some places and so on.

2. Location is everything. Finding the ideal landscape and considering it is a huge project. However, topography, environment and panorama have great influence on the final result. We must take it seriously in order to show vivid images, unforgettable pictures and successful ecological portraits in the right places. In order to make everything work in an ideal way, you should study this area and its people as much as possible. Maybe people will feel as comfortable and relaxed as possible in a special place. From all these nuances, it will depend on whether the photographer successfully captures the natural expression or posture. Remember, although the background is extremely important in eco-photography, you should not control the model to attract the audience's attention to yourself.

Don't forget to communicate with your partner. When shooting people, you need to establish a good interpersonal relationship with the subject. Especially when working abroad, you may not speak the local language, which is much more difficult than doing it in a familiar environment. The best way to solve the difficulty is to find local people as guides.

4. The posture of the subject is very important. Facial expression and appearance are the best communication of body language. If the model feels relaxed, it is that she is comfortable in a familiar environment. Any nervous expression will appear in the photo. Usually, people are more comfortable if they sit or lean on something-you can start with a similar scene. Don't look at the camera, let the model look at the distance or concentrate on their own affairs. The photographer's task is to capture successful photos in time.

When shooting close-ups, natural presentation is particularly important. Don't pose, it's too melodramatic.

Don't worry about adding dramatic effect to the image. In figure photography, you can get wonderful portraits to describe the dramatic effects of people and scenes. Here, the correct use of light is very important. For beginners, it may be difficult to get continuous light, so paying more attention to natural light may be very effective.

Try to understand the lighting and light changes in the shooting location and how you changed its mood. Semi-darkness will emphasize the expression on the model's face and highlight the contour texture of the model's face.

6. Don't forget the post-processing function. In difficult lighting conditions, the camera can't handle all the nuances. For example, on a sunny afternoon, the direct light on the lens will inevitably lead to the loss of scene details. When a photo is overexposed on the subject's face, it may be found that the sky is overexposed, and sometimes there will be graininess in the photo. In this case, post-processing is usually helpful. You can use the post-processor to recover the "lost" details.

7, ISO help When trying to get the highest quality photos technically, you must use the lowest ISO value. However, with the development of technology, advanced DSLR cameras can also produce good results in the higher range of 1600-3200 or higher.

A high ISO value makes the shutter work faster, thus shooting a good scene, otherwise it will be missed. High value eliminates the need to use a tripod, and shooting portraits in low light creates such a possibility.