Nine Skills of Taking Good Portrait Photography

Lead: To take good portrait photography, you must first have a camera, and then you need 9 skills. Let's have a look!

& lt I have more skills to make the characters look better.

It's more difficult than you think to get professional results in people photography. The reason is simple: professional photographers hire attractive models. As you know, models are models for only one reason: they forget to eat and sleep. Of course, I'm kidding.

They become models because they are very photogenic. So, what makes our work more difficult is that we are not surrounded by charming models. We usually shoot for friends, or for many people whose looks are between Mr. Bean and jabba the hutt. That's why as a portrait photographer, his job is more challenging than that of an experienced professional photographer. I want to get magical effects from people who are not models. This is why we are often disappointed with our pictures of people (of course, it's not our fault). In this chapter, we will see two effective methods, which can help us get better and more professional photos every time.

(1) How to make friends with good-looking people (this is very helpful if you are rich).

(2) Learn to control the lighting and the posture of the subject. I said, the key is to use dramatic lighting? Dramatic lights? Actually, it means no light. The less bright these non-model subjects are, the better the final photos will be. In fact, you can consider silhouette or long-distance night shooting, that is, shooting at a distance of 100~200 yards from the subject, which is very beautiful to anyone at this distance (which is also the reason for the beauty of distance). Anyway, this chapter will tell you how to shoot people, and provide a list of places where people who wear jeans that are more expensive than Luxembourg GNP and have a good expression often go.

Second, don't leave too much head space.

When ordinary people take snapshots, they always leave too much space above the head of the subject (as shown above). This is a common mistake made by most amateurs, but fortunately it is very easy to correct. But don't do it. Don't leave too much space. If you remember the figure composition technique in the first volume of this book (the subject's eyes are above the scene 1/3), then you can avoid this? Too much head space? problem

< third > character direction

Most pictures are taken horizontally (landscape photography), which can also create the most perfect feeling, because the horizontal bracket of the camera is designed in this way, which is why the shutter button is at the upper right, which is exactly where the finger can be placed naturally.

However, professional portrait photography is generally taken vertically (this is also called? Character direction? However, this term is mostly used in the case of computer printing pictures, and you will see a horizontal (horizontal) or vertical (vertical) button. So, if you want to get a more professional portrait of a person, put the camera vertically and shoot in the direction of the person (of course, there are always exceptions like other rules, which will be discussed later in this chapter).

& lt fourth > shoot people? Be sure to have a battery handle

If you shoot a lot of people, you will spend a lot of time flipping the camera up and down, and soon you will get tired of pressing the shutter button at the top of the camera.

At this point, you need a vertical battery handle. In addition to allowing you to use two batteries, you can also shoot for a longer time without replacing the batteries. Another advantage is that most battery handles include vertical shutter buttons and knobs for setting aperture and shutter speed, so that vertical shooting feels as comfortable as horizontal shooting. In addition to these benefits, most photographers I know think it makes the whole camera more comfortable and firm in the hand, even when shooting horizontally (the feel of the camera is very important). The better news is that these battery handles can be used in most SLR cameras. Compared with their advantages, the battery handle is cheaper than expected (generally above RMB in 700 yuan).

Just be sure when ordering battery handles: not all battery handles have vertical shutter keys, so be sure that the battery handles you ordered have this function.

& ltv > pseudo rules? The sun on the shoulder?

You may have heard of it? The sun on the shoulder? The rule is that when shooting people outdoors, you should turn your back to the sun (above your shoulders) so that the subject's face is illuminated. This is a perfect rule for taking snapshots, but it is the worst for group photos (except? The tall man standing in the back? Such a situation).

If you want to make outdoor portrait photography professional, don't let the sun shine directly on your face (although most people do), which will make everyone squint, unable to open their eyes and face the camera. To make matters worse, there are dazzling, direct and annoying lights on their faces.

If the subject's back to the sun (not your back to the sun), there will be a good edge light effect around them (outline hair), and then use the flash slightly (keep the brightness of the flash low) to let their faces have enough light, so that they can blend in with the surrounding natural light.

< 6 > zoom in with a wide-angle lens.

This concept refers to shooting with a wide-angle lens at the scene. Because of the highly respected rule, don't shoot with wide-angle lenses, because they will be distorted and look strange, so I haven't considered this method for many years.

But he is the top photographer in the world, and the excellent joe McNally completely subverts this myth and completely changes the way I shoot environmental portraits. I shoot with a wide-angle lens and zoom in. When shooting with a wide-angle lens, you can really get close to the subject (you can zoom in), and they won't be distorted, but the scenery on the edge of the scene frame looks a little bit? Wide? But the scene on the edge of the picture shows the shooting environment. I was skeptical about this method until Joe challenged me to read People magazine. Most photos are taken with close-up wide-angle lenses. I was shocked, not only in People magazine, but almost everywhere, from magazines to billboards, to print advertisements and the Internet. Professional photographers enlarge wide-angle lenses, so can you!

& lt 7 > shoot the profile of the person horizontally.

Now that we have learned the rules of portrait portrait, let's break this rule (this is the most interesting point in the photography rules. If you learn these rules, you may break them, which is cool! However, it is unwise to break the rules carelessly, because it is due to lack of understanding. Anyway, the place to deliberately break this rule is when we shoot the main side. The reasons are as follows: Because the subject faces the edge of the scene frame, if shooting vertically, it looks like being confined in a frame, which is very uncomfortable visually. Therefore, breaking the law of vertical shooting and shooting the profile of the character horizontally will give the subject a visual breathing space and make the subject in the scene frame look more comfortable.

& lt 8 > Take a better portrait with telephoto.

Have you ever watched high-end photo shooting on TV (maybe fashion shooting or celebrity shooting) and noticed the distance between the photographer and the subject? Is this because they used a lens with a longer focal length (very suitable for portrait shooting)? Camera compression? . The photo above tells us all the secrets completely. The left picture was shot with a 50mm lens, and the right picture was shot with a 70-200mm lens with a focal length of190 mm.

Even though all the cameras have the same settings and lighting (they are shot only a few seconds apart), her effect in the photo on the right looks more pleasant. This is why you will see many professional photographers taking portraits with a wide focal length. In other words, they try to shoot with the telephoto end of the lens. Therefore, if they shoot with a lens of 28- 135mm, the shooting effect is the best in the range of 100mm- 135mm, and the portrait effect is the most satisfactory at this time.

& lt 9 > The reason why outdoor portrait shooting needs soft mask.

When shooting portraits, the light is very harsh and unsatisfactory, so the worse effect can be determined by coin-casting: the camera has a built-in flash or direct light.

Fortunately, as you know in the digital photography manual, if you shoot portraits outdoors and there is a shade nearby, you can shoot in the shade. But what if we shoot on the beach or in the desert, or other nearby places without shade? Then you need to have one of the following equipment: 33-inch lastlite tri grip1soft mask (as I mentioned in the flash part, it disperses the glare of the external flash, so it has a dual task here). Ask a friend to hold a soft mask between the sun and the subject (as shown above), and you can get soft and beautiful natural light immediately. Its price is around RMB in 480 yuan. When you leave the studio, you will love this portable life buoy.