How to shoot an inverted portrait?

In portrait photography, we sometimes use the technology of back shooting to shape people. Simply put, the photographer takes a picture from the bottom to the top. This unique perspective has a strong visual impact, which often produces unexpected effects and can highlight the tall figure of the characters.

First, the difference between backhand and flat shot

Before explaining the backhand, let's learn about the most commonly used shooting method-flat shot. As the name implies, the so-called flat shooting means that the shooting point and the object are on the same horizontal plane and the shooting is completed at the usual angle. Generally speaking, people's perspective in daily life is head-up, that is, the horizontal position of people's line of sight is on a horizontal plane with the scenery they see, so the picture formed by head-up shooting is close to people's visual habit of observing things, and its sense of perspective is relatively normal, which will not be distorted because of the perspective deformation of the subject. Therefore, this method of plane shooting is the most widely used in photography practice, but it is precisely because plane shooting conforms to people's daily visual habits that it is difficult for the photos taken to have strong daily visual habits, so it is difficult for the excluded photos to have strong visual impact and appeal, because it is so common for people to observe the world around us in this way every day.

(Beautiful model shot upside down)

Second, the use of backhand skills

In some cases, we need to shoot portraits with strong visual impact according to the shooting theme. In order to show the self-confidence of the subject, or to make the model taller and have longer legs, or even to break through the uniformity of head-up photos, we can adopt the upward shooting method.

The so-called backhand, literally, is to complete our shooting from an upward angle. In backhand, you can use the perspective effect of the lens "near big and far small" to shape a "tall figure", and you can also avoid the defects of some characters in figure proportion and face shape, so as to shape the characters more perfectly, or at least make them look more slender than themselves.

In this portrait photography, the photographer used a low angle to complete the composition of the characters. In the picture, due to the perspective deformation, the model's posture and legs are very slender, which makes the "long-legged sister" look more confident in the picture. It is a masterpiece of portrait shooting by backhand.

In this portrait photography, the photographer also used the technique of back shooting to complete the composition. In fact, this portrait is not to highlight the slender figure of the model, nor to shape the taller figure of the subject, but to express the cheerful mood of the character from a brand-new perspective. Such a brand-new perspective makes an ordinary portrait work extremely creative and visually attractive.

The choice of backhand angle is very important and needs the photographer's good control and grasp. If the backhand angle is not enough, there will be no visual impact in the picture. On the other hand, if the backhand angle is too high, it may make the characters skew or even lean to one side in the composition.

(A beautiful female model took it with backhand)

Most outdoor backpackers will have the sky as the background. If you use the camera's key average metering function to measure light, a large area of bright sky will interfere with normal and accurate metering, resulting in metering errors and underexposure, so you need to pay attention to the exposure problem. If you are not sure, you can shoot ahead of time and fill the light with a flash if necessary.

The technique of shooting from behind is helpful to show the upward motivation and exaggerate the upward motivation of jumping. It is often used to shoot high platform diving, martial arts and other sports.

(Back-slapping diver)