Five Skills of Quickly Fixing Portrait Photography Structure

Lead: Compared with portrait modeling, the composition of portrait photography is relatively simple. We only need to determine the scene and background prospect on the basis of perfect modeling to highlight and contrast the characters. Of course, the basic principles of photography must be followed: the subject is prominent, the picture is concise, and the disturbing scenery is removed.

? Choose as simple a background as possible to highlight the characters.

To take an excellent portrait photo, the first consideration should be to find a suitable shooting environment. The principle of choosing environment should conform to the subtraction principle of photography, that is, the characteristics of environment should be as simple as possible, and only simplified background elements can highlight the main characters. It must be remembered that portrait photography is not a commemorative photo, and those scenes that look bright, colorful and strangely shaped are not suitable for portrait photography.

It is relatively easy to control the background in the studio, and a simple monochrome background is a common choice. But avoid being too monotonous at this time. For high-profile portraits, you can increase the background light to control the change of light and shade. Low-key photography and rendering background cloth are also good choices.

On the contrary, simple sea, open grassland or uniform Woods will play a better role in setting off. After finding a suitable environment, we should consider people whose blurred background is prominent and clear, that is, using aperture value to control the depth of field. For simple backgrounds such as sky and sea, the aperture can be smaller by f/8 or f/ 1 1 to make them clearer; For slightly messy forests, you can use f/4 or f/2.8 to blur them. These are the classic skills of concise pictures.

Tips:

Pay more attention to the distant horizon in composition, and try not to cross the neck of the character, otherwise it will easily cause the feeling of cutting your throat. If you want to blur the building on the horizon, the best way is to stay away from it, which can reduce its proportion in the picture and make it easier to blur.

? Coordination between characters and environmental background

In terms of creativity and composition, shooting environmental portraits requires photographers to consider more than simple portrait photography. At this time, we should not only consider the shape and lighting of the characters, but also consider the environmental characteristics and lighting effects, and organically combine them to be harmonious and set off each other.

If the environment at home is a little messy, you can use the effect of using a long focal length lens and a large aperture and shallow depth of field to blur the front and rear scenery as much as possible, especially the scene with many knickknacks in front of the table. Using the backlight of the window to increase the exposure can form a high-profile background effect and avoid the influence of dark scenes at home on the picture.

This is a group of family photos taken by the photographer. The author chooses the living room as the shooting site, which is usually the largest and widest room in the home, and photographers can take pictures freely. The author took great pains in framing, with the characters sitting in the corner of the sofa, the middle scene being a part of the porcelain desk lamp, and the vague stairs in the background forming the texture and increasing the sense of change in the picture. Because of the influence of space, home portrait photography is mostly bust, so it tests the photographer's modeling ability. Facial expression, orientation, body posture and hand movements should be delicate, otherwise it is easy to fail.

For indoor portraits, photographers need to arrange the characters in places with suitable light and harmonious background. Dining table in front of the living room window, sofa, bedside of the living room, etc. Both are good choices. You can usually get closer to natural light and be less messy here. Of course, before shooting, it is best to clean up the messy knickknacks and make the environment clean and tidy as a whole. Some practices of family photographers are worth learning: helping homeowners clean their houses before shooting can greatly improve the picture effect.

Tips:

In indoor portrait shooting, natural light should be used as much as possible to create a soft light effect. If you want to brighten some dark corners in the room, try to use soft boxes.

Let the face of the character face the light of the window, you can use the wide light source of the window to form a soft and bright eye in the eyes of the character, and the effect is excellent.

? Increase the possibility of ambiguity

Photographers with a little basic knowledge usually know that shooting portraits with a long focal length lens (150mm or more) is more conducive to blurring the background, thus highlighting the performance of the characters. A more creative way is to shoot with a medium and long focal length (85mm~ 135mm) lens, and deliberately increase the foreground in front of the lens.

When shooting in a blurred foreground, you can first step away from the person and observe which colors and shapes match the scene, which can be used as the foreground. When choosing the foreground, it is best to give priority to natural scenery, such as grass, flowers, branches and leaves. They are light and have a certain light transmittance. Man-made lines are dull and rigid, even if they are blurred, the effect is too standardized. When shooting, the author actually takes the blurred foreground as a frame and uses its concealer function to highlight people who don't account for a large proportion of the picture. This creative method can kill two birds with one stone, that is, it euphemistically emphasizes the subject and adds a sense of depth to the picture.

The technology of foreground blurring is beneficial to improve the effect that the composition of environmental portraits is too rigid. When shooting this work in daily family environment, the author takes the daily life environment of the characters as the background, uses a wall with the owner's photo as the foreground, and uses the effect of large aperture and shallow depth of field to blur the foreground to a certain extent. Formed a creative shooting technique: warm color environment is the normal state of daily life, while the wall and photos in the foreground are black and white, and the color and black and white, clarity and blur form a strong contrast. If the movements and demeanor of the characters are more distinctive, the work will be more successful.

This method not only combines the fuzzy background technology, but also increases the overall depth of the picture through the fuzzy foreground technology, and highlights the clear characters by double means. In actual shooting, you can choose some leaves or flowers as the foreground and arrange them on the edge or side of the picture, as close as possible to it for about 20~30cm.

Distance. In this way, the deep foreground effect is used to form a colorful atomization effect, and its blurring effect is far stronger than the background. This shooting technique is widely used in the creation of photo, portrait and documentary portrait.

Tips:

It is important to choose the focus when shooting. It is best to use the edge of the occlusion to focus and complete the focusing operation. Otherwise, the camera's autofocus will give priority to the nearest flowers or leaves.

Don't worry about the leaves or lace in the foreground blocking people. Under the blur effect of large aperture, sharp edges will form a blooming effect, which is more artistic charm.

? Let the character's eyes look straight at the camera.

The eyes in portrait photography are the focus of creation that needs special attention. Portrait photography with one eye looking directly out of the picture will make the audience stay. In eye contact, the audience can feel the inner feelings of the characters. This shows the importance of human eyes in the painting.

The figure's body is facing the camera, and his eyes are looking directly at the camera. This is a powerful impact effect, especially when the figure's expression is serious, which gives people the feeling of rejection and resistance. Show the bold and cool demeanor of the characters. Traditional China women's personality characteristics are weak, so this style of photos is not common.

In shooting, professional models can easily look directly at the camera and reveal different emotional characteristics through their eyes. But when ordinary people take portraits, it is difficult to show any feelings for this cold machine, and even she will have a sense of fear.

It is better to learn the skills of traditional photo studio: fix the camera on a tripod, press the shutter with a wireless remote control, and the photographer will face the photographer directly, and guide people's eyes to the camera through words and gestures. Usually this warm communication will relax the subject, and his eyes and body posture will be much more natural.

Tips:

Before shooting the smiling back, be sure to remind the model not to turn her body when turning her head, and try to stick her face on the front shoulder. This is the most beautiful shape. Of course, when the model turns her head, she should observe carefully. When she reached the best angle, she had to stop and let the model's movements stay short for a few seconds to finish the shooting quickly.

? Leave enough space for the extension of the eyes.

If you are shooting an unfamiliar person, even a professional model, you will be a little nervous and stiff when you look directly at the camera at first, and these expressions will be revealed in your works, forming defects. Therefore, it is best to let the model look outside the camera from the beginning to relieve her nervousness. Let the model's eyes look out of the camera. You can deliberately slow down the shooting pace and let her relax and immerse herself in her thoughts for a while, then you can capture her shy and subtle beauty.

When shooting a woman with her eyes down and her head hidden, it is easy to form the effect of low eyebrows and drooping eyes. Therefore, when shooting, we must remind the characters to look up and keep their eyes open. Using a reflector near the waist of a character can form a vision in the pupil and enhance the eye effect.

Outside the lens, it can be divided into three types: head-up, head-up and head-down. The direction of looking up symbolizes hope and yearning, the direction of looking up brings a state of concentrated thinking, and the downward direction means shyness. No matter which direction is adopted, photographers need to let their eyes have more room to extend on the picture when composing.

Tips:

When shooting high-profile works against the light in front of the window, we should not only appropriately increase the exposure, but also fill the light from the front of the figure, otherwise the outline of the figure facing the light will blur and disappear. The posture of the characters' arms on the dining table is exquisite: elbows are as close as possible to form a V-shape, which can make the lines of the characters' upper body more beautiful.

? The upward shooting angle shows a tall figure.

When shooting portraits, different shooting heights will affect the visual experience of the characters in the picture. Usually the photographer takes an upright posture, that is, the photographer and the photographer's eyes are at the same height, which is in line with our usual appreciation habits, so the characters in the picture conform to normal physical characteristics.

Usually, people's head-to-body ratio is 1: 6 to 1: 7, while professional fashion models can reach 1: 8. The greater the head-to-body ratio, the higher the figure. So, the author asked the model to stand on a small platform, holding the shooting height flush with her calf, and deliberately shooting with a backhand angle. Under the influence of perspective deformation, the figure's head is far away from the lens, the proportion becomes smaller, and the figure is particularly slender. This is also the angle of shooting the runway model, so we see the model photos in fashion magazines, and the legs are particularly long, which is the reason.

But for different themes and ideas, we might as well try different shooting heights and pitching angles when shooting. For example, when shooting a child, you need to kneel down and shoot at the height of the child's eyes, so that the child's body proportion will be normal and there will be no common ones? Big head doll? Effect; Shooting a model from a lower height and from behind will exaggerate the length of the model's legs and reduce the proportion of the head, resulting in a slender figure and a beautiful visual effect of increasing the proportion of the head and body.