Discussion on practical experience of Sakamoto's portrait photography

It seems that I haven't written for a while recently. I just took a photo in BW for a day recently, so I need to make up (water) quickly.

This paper will discuss and summarize the experience of portrait photography based on Mikaka's recent photography practice, and welcome novice wizards to study and discuss together. Students who don't know enough about the basic theory of SLR can read the above Introduction to Simple Theory of SLR. Miksaka will update the pictures after processing some materials recently to make the article more intuitive.

After understanding the related concepts of exposure and focusing, I think that as a new mage, the first thing to do is to understand the characteristics of photographic equipment itself. For example, in daily shooting, we choose different shooting modes for the camera under different environmental conditions. How will different camera modes affect the final imaging picture? For example, when we deal with the spatial relationship between the subject and our photographer, what kind of differences will be made to the pictures taken under different shots? Do we need to use a flash? How to shoot can maximize the real imaging ability of SLR, at the same time cover up the defects of the subject, maximize the proofs and reduce the later workload?

Knowing the performance of the equipment we use and evaluating the environment when taking pictures, just as soldiers know the length and weight of their swords, weapons can play the most effective role and achieve the effect we need.

A while ago, I bought a 35mm fixed-focus lens and a 75-300 zoom lens, which gave me a lot of space in the choice of lens focal length. In portrait photography on weekdays, the 35mm fixed-focus lens has become my first choice, and the blur effect of the lens has greatly helped me solve the problem of separating the portrait from the background in the later period. This is because unless there is a special need, we often want to highlight the thematic characteristics of portraits, and we need to make the subtle parts such as the corners of the mouth or the moment when eyes condense in the picture become the most attractive parts. The most commonly used functions in the software are intelligent matting, background blurring or lens blurring to complete the effect of simulating aperture blurring.

The 35mm 1.8 residual fixed-focus lens I bought is about 50mm, which not only fills the focal length of my close shot, but also makes up for the large aperture that my camera lens does not have. But in the actual combat of BW exhibition, I immediately felt the shortage of fixed focus lens. As the saying goes, "Zoom by hand and focus by walking." Fixed focus lens can't improve the spatial relationship between us and the subject. When the actual shooting environment is complex and there are various obstacles between us and the subject, we can't rely on the fixed-focus lens to adapt to the complex shooting environment. So in the whole BW, I thought it was an artifact in my hand, and it only played a role when I patted it with my hand.

Of course, this is not the fault of the lens, but I didn't expect the shooting environment to affect the actual shooting situation, and then I chose the wrong equipment. What kind of environment we want to go to, what kind of photos we want to take and what kind of equipment we want to choose are all the ideas of the Equipment Party. Of course, we can also choose to know the characteristics of the equipment in our hands, choose the most suitable subject, or coordinate the relationship between the subject and us. This is the most practical method. After all, it is impossible for the equipment provider to bring enough equipment to deal with all situations at any time and any place. In addition, only by knowing these devices in your hands can you have timely solutions when facing problems. For example, when you clap your hands, you find that there are inexplicable black edges on the picture, but the camera is not blocked by anything.

I thought about it for a long time, only to know that it was because I took my hand at close range in aperture priority mode. The SLR automatically increased the shutter speed because the light was too strong, and photographed the stroboscopic flash generated by the led lights that might be lit by alternating current around my hand. Just switch to full manual mode and lower the exposure, exposure and shutter of IOS. And these are exactly what we need to know about the equipment we use.

The second is to deal with the spatial relationship between our photographer and the subject. In some technical terms, it seems to be perspective. We know that different focal lengths produce different degrees of distance, which also changes the shooting range. The shorter the focal length, the wider the viewing angle, and the more serious the picture distortion, which will make the picture exaggerated and unreal. The longer the focal length, the less content can be photographed in the picture, the scene is compressed and the picture loses its three-dimensional sense. Therefore, in actual photography, the choice of focal length is also very important. We can't stop just because we really zoom in, which is undoubtedly impossible to explore the beautiful scenery hidden in the space between the photographer and the subject. A real mage needs an iron hand as stable as a chicken's head and legs as flexible as a dancer when taking pictures.

The third is composition. Whether we know the characteristics of the equipment, the choice of aperture and focal length, or the choice between the picture effect and the actual situation, we will eventually fall into the problem of picture composition. This involves a question, what shall we shoot? In the process of shooting the subject, we highlight what we want to shoot. From the moment we face an object to the moment we finish retouching, the idea of composition should be consistent. When you can shoot an object, you must let go of your thinking and construct different pictures from different ideas. Don't wait until later to retouch the picture before sending out feelings such as "Alas, I should try to shoot at a slightly oblique angle here" and "I should include the objects next to me in the picture to increase the layering". Composition is a creative process, and we also need to strengthen interaction with the subject. For example, in portrait photography, communicate effectively with the model, let the model stand in a suitable lighting environment, suggest actions that are conducive to the picture, and remind the expression and eyes.

The experience of composition can be learned from many photographic works. By referring to other people's perspectives, other people's parameters and other people's methods of constructing pictures, you can keep trying, and finally you can sum up your favorite shooting methods and form your own style. It should be noted that in the process of photographic composition, we can leave enough space for post-processing. After all, even if the straight-out picture is not perfect, we can control the scope and level of the picture through intentional clipping and segmentation in the later stage, and even use it as the material of other works. Because I didn't consider the space in the later stage, I took a bunch of waste pictures that I thought were ok at that time, but the actual computer use was not so good, so it was difficult to reuse them in the later stage.

The above are some fragmentary feelings of Mikosaka's recent photography, but in fact, most of them are points that I personally have not done well. Nearly half of the more than 700 photos taken by BW were deleted, including exposure, shutter failure and many other problems. So basic skills are still very important. The first duty of a wizard is to shoot more and be familiar with the equipment. Practice more and be familiar with the shooting environment and accidents; Need more retouching to understand the shortcomings of the picture; More importantly, we should see more and communicate more, so as to improve our photographic experience and aesthetic thinking.