How to shoot the best portrait with 50MM fixed focus lens

The most taboo of portrait shooting is to use the direct sunlight overhead. It produces black shadows around the eye sockets, nose and chin. In order to avoid this destructive light effect, professional portrait photographers like to choose an open shady place, such as a big tree on a sunny day, where there is a lot of reflected light around to make up for the local shadow and form a smooth shadowless illumination on the face of the person.

If you have to shoot portraits at noon, you can easily create an open shade condition, that is, let the subject turn his back to the sun. Technically, it's called backlight. This will challenge your camera exposure meter, and the following methods can solve this problem. In order to improve the effect of shooting the above picture in direct sunlight, you can use a translucent white umbrella to block the noon sunshine. Another way is to use this light to solve the problem, but the strong light around the subject will interfere with your exposure meter, resulting in underexposure. To avoid this, you should get exposure readings directly from the subject's face near him. Or if your camera is equipped with a spotlight, use it to measure the reflected light of the subject's face.

2. Try to compose vertically

One of the mistakes that beginners often make in portrait photography is to shoot the portrait horizontally. This horizontal composition is suitable for shooting group images, but when you shoot a single person, you should turn the camera to the vertical position. Rigid frame framing is more suitable for a single portrait, because this framing corresponds to the vertical rectangle of the head itself or the head and upper body. The vertical structure is also suitable for taking dry photos of couples, especially when hugging. It can show the intimate romantic mood of couples incisively and vividly.

Several problems that should be paid attention to when adopting horizontal frame. For example, although the banner portrait in the above picture is good, please note that the way the author cuts through the chest makes the picture look stiff and unnatural. The most natural cut of a character should be chosen in the narrowest part of the body, such as the neck and waist. The following figure cuts the vertical picture of the subject in this way and gets a relatively balanced and satisfactory composition.

Step 3 Use a large aperture

Well, you set up a small studio in the living room. I believe you can take better photos of children than the self-portrait kiosks set up in the supermarket. One thing to note is to avoid using small apertures from F/ 1 1 to F/22. Using a small aperture is good for shooting scenery in strong light, but it will cause problems for shooting portraits. A small aperture can make the background appear quite clear, which will divert the attention of the subject.

The large aperture of F/ 1.8 to F/4 can blur the background and make it out of focus, making the mother and son the only interesting objects in the mother-child photos. However, a large aperture may make the depth of field too shallow. If one eye of the subject is farther away from the camera than the other eye, the farther eye may be out of focus. The remedy is to discard the background when shooting, so that you can use a smaller aperture, or adjust the position of the interviewee's head to make his eyes equal to the camera.

You should show your subject, not your background. The portrait on the right with F/ 16 has a clear background. People will try to tell what it is or where it is. However, on the left, in this more powerful portrait taken with F/2.8, there is no problem that the background will distract attention. People will focus on what the photographer wants: the subject. However, blurring the background is not always necessary. You might as well take a photo of the environment. To this end, you need to keep the surrounding background clear and introduce the subject through the characteristics and details of the environment.

Step 4 choose simple clothes

Dazzling colorful clothes will only distract the audience from the theme. Use simple design and quiet colors. If you plan to take some casual portraits, you can always prepare a simple undershirt. If you take pictures of most people, put a piece of red or blue satin around her upper body and fix it with a pin, which can replace an off-the-shoulder or open-necked evening dress. If the subject is wearing inappropriate clothes when shooting, try to change this. You can make the picture composition more compact, avoid the flashy shirt, or leave the shirt in the shadow when polishing, so that the face is relatively bright.

The costumes of the characters should be kept simple. In terms of color, it is usually effective to keep the dress simple. Bright primary colors can add life to portraits. Gaudy clothes will make people pay attention to the characters from the subject's five senses. But pay attention to choose clothes that can match the true color of the subject. If possible, it will be the most ideal effect to let the subjects choose their own clothes colors. Almost all people know what color suits them best. If he (she) wears matching clothes, the sky blue or color-picking eyes of the subject will be more obvious. The complementary colors of red, green and blue are yellow, magenta and cyan.

Step 5 get closer

Another reason why inexperienced portrait photographers can't shoot is that the closer you shoot, the better. If the characters you shoot are too small on the screen to see the center of the performance at a glance, the effect will be poor. The solution is to take a closer look. You can walk up close to the subject, or you can shoot with a lens with a longer focal length.

Beauty is close at hand. Robert capa, a famous war photographer, said that if your photos are not good enough, it is because you are not close enough. Of course, portrait photos are the same. The above photo was taken at a distance of 15 feet. It is neither a portrait nor a city photo. The picture below, because it is close to the subject, no one doubts that it is a portrait and a successful portrait. By the way, there is a common problem in the above picture, that is, the head of the character is in the center of the picture. Try to put the customs department in the top half of the picture when composing the composition.

6. Long focal length

What is the best shot to take a portrait? A medium-distance zoom or fixed-focus lens is ok. If 35 mm film is used, this means that a lens with a focal length of 85 to 135 mm should be used. Taking a portrait with a short focal length (below 50 mm) often exaggerates people's facial features, and sometimes makes the nose look bigger than it really is, which will disappoint friends.

When using a longer lens (85 to 135 mm), which is commonly called portrait lens, the perspective is compressed, so that facial features will show the correct proportion. If you want to use a lens with a long focal length of more than 200 mm, it will make your face look very peaceful. It's better to take pictures with a medium telescope. The face shot with a 35 mm wide-angle lens is so ugly. The portrait taken with a 105 mm long focal length lens below compresses the perspective and facial features, making the subject look natural and pleasing to the eye.