How do exterior portraits use flash?

Lead: We often say that photography is the art of light and shadow. In portrait photography, besides natural light, there is also artificial light. Therefore, as photographers, we should not only learn to use light, but also learn to use light. Therefore, flash is the auxiliary light source that we use most in portrait photography, so the author focuses on the small external flash and outdoor lighting commonly used in outdoor shooting.

When it comes to flash for outdoor shooting, many junior photographers don't understand why they use flash even on cloudy days when there is so much outdoor light.

Let's take two sets of men's wear works shot by location flash as an example to explain them to you. The two groups of films here are the comparison pictures of the flash before and after use in the same scene, the same clothing and almost the same exposure combination value.

When you look at the pictures, you can obviously find that the pictures without flash are rich and deep in color, the clothing is soft in texture, and the spatial relationship between the model and the background is not obvious. After using the flash, the stereoscopic impression and skin texture of the characters are obviously improved, the texture of the clothing fabric is also clearly reflected, the spatial relationship between the model and the background is clearer, and the whole picture is more stereoscopic and full.

For commercial photographers, it is essential to shoot outdoors on sunny days, because outdoor shooting basically belongs to environmental portraits. Our exposure principle is to test the environment for reference of exposure data.

Due to the direct sunlight, the exposure requirement of the camera's metering mode to the environment is far lower than the exposure index to people, such as the sky, clouds and buildings. If it is based on the accurate exposure of characters, then the exposure to the environment will often lead to overexposure, and the environmental effect will be very pale after the film is released. So when shooting, we will take the accurate exposure of the environment as the premise, and then use external light or small flash to fill the light for the characters.

So what needs to be emphasized here is that when we shoot outdoors, we use the flash not because of the lack of light at the scene, but mainly to fill the light for people or subjects, so as to ensure that we can finish shooting normally at any time, even at noon.

At the same time, there is another important factor in our use of flash, which is to create lighting effects. After all, we say there is only one sun. In order to avoid the problem that the projection angle of the outdoor sun is deviated or the intensity of the sunlight is not ideal, we often use artificial light sources to make up for the lack of light, which is also convenient for people to stand out from the complex outdoor scenes, especially the portrait photography of clothing, which can obviously improve the texture and three-dimensional sense of outdoor people and clothing.

How to use the flash?

In the process of shooting Taobao, we generally don't choose to use only one flash, because according to normal working conditions, we often take at least hundreds of photos a day. If we only use the micro-camera flash at this time, the power supply is very limited, which can't satisfy and support our long-term shooting. At the same time, the light output power is too small, which will greatly reduce the quality and speed of our shooting. Therefore, in most cases, we choose to use a variety of photographic lights in combination. In the ordinary portrait shooting of Taobao clothing, only a few main styles of clothing are used to assist the camera flash shooting alone, so as to achieve the basic requirements of strengthening the picture texture and improving the visual tonality.

Using magic bull outdoor spotlights to shoot naked and hard light, according to the architectural structure of the scene, the number of seats can be reduced, and the composition can be maximized. The low angle of seats makes the visual impact stronger, and the composition in the middle presents a symmetrical, stable and powerful visual impression. The clouds behind are post-synthesized, which increases the content and texture of the picture.

The key point is that the reference point of exposure combination is the normal exposure of clouds in the sky, and then the light output of the flash is adjusted to make the model expose normally.

The exposure combination is still based on the environment. It was a cloudy afternoon. Under the shade of trees and weak light, the aperture should not be too large, otherwise it is easy to focus. You can adjust the iso to a higher value to ensure the clarity of the aperture.

Same as above. Pay attention to the position of the flash. Men's wear can be sideways, and with the help of the light supplement of the reflector, the light clamping effect can be formed from left to right and from top to bottom.

Handle the light ratio of flash and reflector, one is hard, one is soft, one is bright and the other is dark, and control it through distance and angle, thus effectively forming the sense of volume and texture of the model.

In the tough guy shooting, in addition to the light level, the light ratio should be increased, that is, the light output comparison and distance control of the left and right flashlights. If the light output is difficult, the distance between the flash and the model should be controlled. There is also a contrast between soft and hard light quality. The light quality of the radome and honeycomb used for the left flashlight is relatively soft, while the standard cup used for the right side lamp has a large amount of light and hard light quality.

The shape and angle of the shadow can be seen that the flash is parallel to the side light surface, which is to emphasize the shadow to a greater extent, otherwise the overall picture is too monotonous and loses the significance of lighting shooting.