How to take a good business image photo, what are the main points?

Taking photos of employees for company publicity and magazine articles is very different from taking photos of company activities, just like taking portraits in a professional studio. But this requires a completely different atmosphere, lighting and equipment. This paper introduces different types of corporate portrait photography.

Nikon D700 70mm, ISO 400, 1/200, f/ 14.0.

in the room

Consider two situations-one in a typical office environment and the other in a studio.

General skills of enterprise photography

Establish a good relationship with customers. Communicate face to face with customers, ask for information about the company and ask correct questions.

Find out the exact needs of customers. Don't forget to ask whether the photo was taken indoors or outdoors.

Consider the premise (if the customer doesn't mind) and understand the problems you may encounter in the future, paying special attention to windows and glass surfaces, as well as walls and ceilings.

Provide a quotation according to your needs.

Be sure to schedule your morning photo shoot about an hour after the start of the day. People look too tired at night and may not get much benefit.

Office environment-scattered light

If you improve the ISO of the camera, you need to make sure that the camera can handle the noise. Please remember that high image noise is unacceptable for corporate photography. The setup of shooting with window lighting is very simple-you just need to make sure that the light source comes from the side or front of the subject.

office environment

If the window is just behind the subject, using ambient light without a flash will lead to a complete overexposure of the background because it is brighter outside.

In order to reduce the reflection of surrounding objects and windows, please use a minimum number of flashlights (preferably only once). It's better to use a soft box instead of an umbrella, because you can easily guide and control the lights without causing too much scattering. Tilt the soft light box to let the light shine directly on the main body without spilling all over the room (especially the windows).

Put the soft box on the side, so that it is not in front of the window, and make sure that the accessories are not visible in the reflection of the window. You can also put the light source in a higher position, face down at an angle of 45 to 60 degrees, and then shoot the subject with the camera. In this way, the flash will not be reflected on the window. Set the camera to manual mode, and when the flash is in the soft box, start it with the flash power of 1/4.

If the object is exposed correctly, but the room is too dark, lower the shutter speed to a lower value to contain more ambient light, and then lower the flash output or move the light box away from the object.

Several lighting schemes with different installations

Studio environment

The first scheme only uses two light sources-the key light (soft box) in front of the main body, and its backlight is higher than the background and points to the hair and shoulders of the main body. Since there is no fill light on the left side, the soft light box must be put aside slightly, otherwise there will be shadows on the other side of the face. If there is no other flashlight and the shadow is annoying, use a white reflector to reflect part of the light from the soft light box.

On the right side, light illuminates one side of the face, while weak fill light eliminates the shadow on the other side. Highlights visually separate the head from the background and add subtle light around the shoulders.

In this setting, the power of one light source (welding light) should be greater than that of the other light source (filling light).

Nikon D700 55mm, ISO 200,1100, f/6.3

outdoor activities

Although you can always use available light without a flash, maybe you can add some reflectors to eliminate shadows, but using non-camera flash as supplementary light all day can make your subject stand out. Starting from the shaded area, set the main light source as the light source in the studio. Because of the richness of ambient lighting, in most cases, you don't have to worry about setting side lights, so a single light source can do well. Keep the camera in manual mode and measure the exposure of the background instead of the subject.

Camera body and lens

If the flash is strictly used for shooting, any digital SLR camera should do so. If you shoot in barrier-free/low-light conditions, you may want the camera to handle noise well, because you may shoot at a higher ISO setting than usual.

Camera/flash settings

Image quality: original.

White balance: automatic.

Auto ISO: The basic ISO for turning off the camera (Nikon is 200, Canon is 100).

Focus mode: af-s.

Camera mode: Manual. Start with shutter speed1100-1/200 and f/4.0, and then start from there.

Photometry: It has nothing to do with shooting in manual mode.

Active D-Lighting: off (Nikon only). If it is RAW shooting, it does not need to be enabled.

The optical power of the key: 1/4. Turn off other flashlights, start them at a quarter of power, and adjust them as needed.

Supplementary optical power: 1/32. After the key light is installed and configured, add a fill light, which is set between 1/32- 1/64.

Backlight power:116.

Photographers strongly advise not to shoot the flash at maximum power, and reduce the aperture or increase ISO.

take a group photo

Because more light is needed, it is more difficult to take a group photo. If you only have three or four people, you only need a soft box or umbrella to get good exposure (as long as they are close, you may need a bigger background). If the group is large, plan to add more lights or use bigger and stronger lights.

It is best to take a group photo in a cool place outside, because there is no need to worry about dimming and ensuring uniform distribution. Talk to your theme group and prepare a good joke or two to make the group members laugh naturally.

If you want to shoot a group in the office, it's best to shoot the reflected light from the ceiling. If you have a small group of 8 to 10 people, the distance is very close. If you can bounce it off the white ceiling, you can use a flash.

If there are more people in three rows, you can set two or three studio brackets with external flashlights, and set them to manual mode with a quarter or half of the power, making an angle of 30-45 degrees with the composition. The output of the flash obviously depends on the ambient light intensity in the room.

Make sure that the light reflects and strikes the middle of the group (the middle row), not the front row or the back row. In this way, the light will be evenly distributed in the whole group and illuminate everyone.

This is a simple lighting scheme, which can be used for group photos.