Important aspects of portrait works

What elements does a good portrait need? There must be many answers, but there are three aspects that must be paid attention to when shooting every work.

First, the expression of the characters.

I often see street sweeping works, in which people sit on the side of the road with dull expressions. If his works are criticized as bland, there are always people who explain them by saying that the subject is like this, and he reflects the real world. By the way, since the numbness of the characters reflects the present, why not take a picture of the zebra crossing on the horse road? Don't shoot the concrete pavement on the street? Don't these also reflect what you saw today?

When shooting scenery, everyone knows to choose the most distinctive part of the scene and press the shutter at the best moment of light and shadow. In the same way, people's photography also has a process of choice in grasping the moment. As a static single picture, there will be repeated photos when shooting the same subject, and only one of them is the most attractive. Of course, we can't wait for a person's most charming moment all our lives, but we can find and record the unique and infectious moment that is happening at this moment in the limited shooting time on the street. Shoot the joy, anger, sadness and joy that were happening in the street at that time, shoot his fatigue and depression, and shoot his thinking and meditation at that time. Some of these expressions are fleeting, so shooting portraits requires the camera's focusing speed in hardware, as well as the photographer's observation ability, adaptability and reaction speed. To capture the expression of characters, we must maintain a high degree of sensitivity.

Second, the dynamics of the characters.

When the characters look good, they need the help of body language to make the overall picture of the work look vivid, and they also need the help of body movements. The appearance of expression is accompanied by the action of forming a whole. Take one person waiting for another person as an example. He may stand up anxiously, or lean over to look for it. Of course, he may also be sitting there. In these two different sports, we chose the dynamic former. In addition, it can also be expressed by the smoke he exhaled and the long hair blown by the wind.

At this time, it can't be simply misunderstood as a good work as long as it can shoot the movements of people. Moving objects are composed of countless instantaneous values, and the dynamics in the works are the most expressive moments. Shooting a portrait of a running race, the starting muscles bulge during the whole running process, which has great potential to be erupted. The starting gun goes off, the main body bounces, and it is full of movement. There are moments when the legs are off the ground during running, and the moment at the end of the alluvial runway is not only rich in expression, but also full of movement. These are moments worthy of attention, and the dynamics in the works are the most expressive moments.

Third, pay attention to the cultural symbols around the characters

The characters themselves and their surroundings will bear the imprint of their lives, some of which are cultural symbols that can express and help explain the theme. These symbols with the right to speak will be highlighted on the screen, which will make the finishing touch.

These symbols can be patterns, a touch of color, a worn object such as a knife worn by a Tibetan man in Kangba, a yellow hat worn by a woman in Hui 'an, a building, a wall or a curve. For example, shooting a circle of sky behind the old man in Tulou can vaguely tell readers that Tulou is closed. Not only that, sometimes an action carries cultural symbols. In villages and towns where Muslims gather in Xinjiang, villagers who bow down to Mecca can be seen during the pilgrimage. At this time, an action in the same direction can help you explain the background of the characters and even lead to the meaning of the theme of the picture.

Therefore, in the creation of portrait works, we should pay attention to absorbing the cultural symbols around us, and make good use of these symbols flexibly and appropriately when composing. Only by grasping this point can the work be sublimated and a good work with a certain depth be created.