The main points and concrete expressions of appreciating portrait photography

Portrait photography is one of the most important fields in photography, and it is also one of the photography fields that can best reflect the artistic realm of photographers. In my humble opinion, the artistic realm of portrait photography can be summarized into four levels: pleasing to the eye, lifelike, publicizing personality and interpreting life.

First, it is pleasing to the eye.

Pleasing to the eye is the basic requirement of ordinary people and photographers for portrait photography. Whether it is business portraits, family photos, news portraits or even portraits involved in any photography field, whether it is the subject, photographer or viewer, as long as there is no special purpose, they all want to see pleasing portraits, and making the audience and the audience physically and mentally happy is one of the most important goals of any art form.

First of all, pleasing to the eye has become the common goal of commercial photographers and customers. With the development of modern photography, many problems that were difficult or impossible to be solved by previous photographers have been solved technically, so it is relatively easy to achieve a pleasing realm. Used for commercial photography. This kind of portrait photography not only needs the photographer's own quality, but also depends on some objective factors, such as: excellent makeup artist, beautiful clothes, exquisite props, high-grade photographic equipment, advanced lighting, advanced equipment studio, advanced photo post-processing system, exquisite mounting and careful editing planning.

For the field of portrait photography, the biggest defects are the excessive involvement of non-photographic ontology language and the desalination of photographic ontology language. The so-called photographic ontology language is a unique expression of photographic technology and art, including the use of film, exposure control, photographic lighting and composition management. Non-photographic language mainly refers to non-photographic means of expression that originally played an auxiliary role in photography, such as makeup, costumes, props and so on.

In these portrait photography, the photographic ontology language is generally diluted, and most of the few remaining photographic ontology languages have become a fixed pattern and routine, and even distorted. For example, in terms of light consumption, in order to cater to the tastes of the public, more positive light and soft light are used; In terms of exposure, overexposure is often used to make the skin appear whiter.

But all this is for the customer, and there is nothing wrong with it. Pleasure is to make customers and the general public feel physically and mentally happy. Therefore, this portrait photography itself is an important part of photography art, and it is this pleasing photography that attracts thousands of people to the studio and becomes an important economic pillar for the development of photography art in China, especially amateur photography art.

Since photographic works have the ability to attract the public, it shows that photographic works have the ability to guide the public's aesthetic tendency. This pleasing commercial portrait photography has been popular for ten years, and the aesthetic tendency of the public is also changing quietly.

Moreover, in recent years, with the outstanding contribution of a group of young photographers with great artistic expression to commercial photography, the current portrait photography is showing a booming trend.

Second, realistic.

The appearance of photography makes the problem of "likeness" of portrait reproduction easy, and the development of contemporary portrait photography seems to be out of this development direction. In particular, the current popular business portraits are less and less like themselves, and are farther away from the vivid. The vividness here is, of course, not just a simple "likeness", but a similarity in spirit and form on the basis of pleasing to the eye.

Portrait photography in this field generally has the following main characteristics:

1: Use photography ontology language and non-photography ontology language correctly.

The use of photography ontology language is not simply based on whether it is pleasing to the eye, but mainly depends on whether it can express the expression characteristics of the characters, the lighting is natural and elegant, the exposure is accurate, and the skin color and texture are normal. Cosmetic props should not be too ostentatious and grandstanding. The purpose of makeup is to hide something from time to time, not to set it off. Props are just decorations, not expressions.

2. Exquisite expression capture and eye shaping.

The capture of expression is the eternal theme of photographers, and it is also the key to whether a portrait photography can be vivid. In the feminine contemporary portrait photography, it should be said that it is very good at this point.

There is a lack in the shaping of eyes. This is mainly due to the dim light used in photography. The high profile created by the soft light on the front makes it difficult to highlight the eyes. Therefore, using light to express the characters' eyes is the key to achieve this state in portrait works.

Third, flying personality.

Personality publicity in portrait photography can be divided into two aspects, one is to publicize the personality of the subject, and the other is to publicize the personality of the photographer.

From the photographer's point of view, the purpose of taking portraits is nothing more than to remember, appreciate and show their personality charm. From this perspective, the photographer is helping the subject to show his personality charm. From the photographer's point of view, as the creator of works of art, he should express his photography creativity by means of photography and with the help of the performance ability of models, to reflect his photography style, and even to tell his true understanding of life through photography language.

Portrait photography in this field usually has the following characteristics:

1: the unique language of photography ontology

In the use of photographic language, the use of photographic language in the first realm of portrait photography is generally dull, the use of photographic language in the second realm tends to be natural, and the use of photographic language in the third realm focuses on highlighting.

Light is the most unique ontological language of photography.

For example, Mo Xie's "Two Feelings to the Shadow" skillfully uses shadows to create a wonderful illusion, which is unforgettable. Another example is Zhu Enguang's saint Colin? Thomas's "A glimmer of light", Saab? Alexandra Sutton's purity and so on. The beauty of photography noumenon language is vividly reflected.

2. Unique and concise drama plot

Like Adler? In the Shadow of Life shot by Mousavi, the hero and heroine in the picture tell an intriguing story in the light and shadow effect painstakingly managed by the photographer. It's not a TV series, but it seems to say more than a TV series. Of course, this work is also unique in lighting and composition.

3. Show a unique understanding of the relationship between man and nature.

Pure portrait photography may not include nature, but in this special era of environmental crisis, many photographers aim at nature and the relationship between man and nature. Or enthusiastic eulogy, or sharp criticism.

Whether it's Carl? Cowley's Man and the Sun and Yi's Man and the Sun both express the desire for the integration of man and nature.

4. Strong visual impact

Whether it is clever lighting, clever composition, or innovative and bold lens application, its purpose is to produce strong visual effects.

Publicizing the subject's personality is to make people look unique and dramatic like photographs. The publicity of the photographer's personality should show his understanding of photography, the subject, portrait photography and even life through his own personalized photography ontology language, so in a sense, photography is the photographer's silent confession.

Fourth, the interpretation of life.

Great portrait photography is great because it depicts the souls of characters, because it eulogizes the greatness of life, because it records the spiritual outlook of an era, and because it records the joys and sorrows of human society.

From the individual point of view, great portrait photography profoundly records the inner world of the characters, whether sad or happy, or thinking or shouting. It is precisely because it presents the inner world of the characters that such photographic works give people a spiritual shock. At the same time eulogize the preciousness and greatness of life. In the face of such works, every audience will be proud of having life.

From the overall situation of human society, great portrait photography records the mental outlook of people in an era and the great joys and sorrows of human society. The significance of great portrait photography has completely surpassed the significance of ordinary portraits. It is a symbol of society, times and history. In this sense, the significance of portrait photography is far more than the publicity of the photographer's memory and personality.

Great portrait photography usually has the following characteristics.

1: Strong emotional impact

It embodies the value of life and eulogizes the greatness of life.

3. It reflects the joys and sorrows of human society.

4. It embodies the special personality charm of the subject.

5. Desalination of photographic language.

For example, the "Little Girl with Big Eyes" in the series of photos of Jie Hailong Hope Project captures the longing eyes of out-of-school children, carries the hopes of countless out-of-school children, and shakes the hearts of countless people. At the same time, it also makes this seemingly ordinary portrait photography work have extraordinary significance.

For example, Martin, a Hungarian photographer admired by Bresson? The photos taken by Monkasi of three black children rushing to the conference, although they didn't even see the faces of the three protagonists, made all observers realize the preciousness and greatness of life. The positive spirit of human society shown in this photographic work may make the viewer unforgettable all his life.

Another example is the shooting of Churchill by Halsman. His cold face and sharp eyes all show the inner world of this iron-fisted politician, which is also the spiritual symbol of that unforgettable era. And his Einstein has almost become a representative symbol of science. It is said that Einstein was lost in meditation on the atomic bomb that exploded in Hiroshima when he took this photo. As you can see, there is a heavy sadness in Einstein's wise eyes, which is also the most touching place of this photo. Of course, the success of these two photos is not unrelated to the special personality charm of the subjects. These great photographs all seem to have a common feature, that is, the language of photography tends to be dull.

The above analysis of the artistic realm of portrait photography is not a simple judgment of portrait photography, and it is difficult to clearly define which realm specific photography belongs to. However, any kind of portrait photography can achieve the purpose of letting observers enjoy art, just experiencing different things.

This tune is not bad.