10 portrait photography skills that beginners must learn.

Lead: After the novice understands a series of parameters, the next step is to learn composition. Let me talk about the skills of 10 composition.

1. Highlight people with simple backgrounds

The choice of background is very important when shooting portraits. If used properly, it can set off the atmosphere of the picture well, and the complex background can easily distract the viewer's attention. So try to choose a simple and harmonious background when shooting, so as to better highlight the subject. If shooting indoors, the wall or background cloth can be used first in the head-up angle, and the bed sheet or floor can be considered in the head-down angle. If shooting outdoors, you can consider using a large aperture to blur the background, or looking for beautiful building exterior walls and dense flowers, or looking up against the blue sky or overlooking the grass. In short, as long as the background selection is based on the simple principle, you can always find the right shooting scene and angle.

2. Create a beautiful picture with an infectious background.

Simple background can make people stand out in the picture, but the picture lacks story and can't explain the environment of the characters in the picture well, so it is only suitable for shooting portrait works. If you want to make the picture more readable, you should choose the background according to the shooting intention or the characteristics of the subject. You can try to choose the scenery or beautiful content environment as the background to enrich and enrich the picture. This is especially important when shooting portraits with wide-angle lenses, so wide-angle lenses will be integrated into more picture environments, so the choice of background is more important. In addition, we should also pay attention to the reasonable arrangement of the position of the characters in the picture, in order to get photos with aesthetic feeling and outstanding characteristics of the characters.

3. Choose a large aperture to get a shallow depth of field.

As mentioned above, the larger the aperture (such as f/ 1.8, f/2.4), the smaller the aperture value and the shallower the depth of field. The smaller the aperture (such as f/ 18, f/22), the larger the aperture value and the greater the depth of field. If you want to get a photo with a shallow depth of field, you should first consider shooting with a large aperture. Large aperture plays a very important role in portrait photography, which can obtain the beautiful blur effect of shallow depth of field and help us to ensure higher shutter speed in the case of poor ambient light.

4. Get a shallow depth of field near the subject.

The easiest way to get a shallow depth of field and blur the background is to put the camera close to the model when the distance between the model and the background is constant, so that the effect of shallow depth of field can be easily obtained, the characters are more prominent and the background is naturally blurred. When shooting, it should be noted that the foreground cannot be a messy scene, because when the camera is close to the model, the foreground will be clearer in the picture.

5. Keep the background away from the subject to get a shallow depth of field.

The easiest way to get a shallow depth of field and blur the background is to put the camera close to the model when the distance between the model and the background is constant, so that the effect of shallow depth of field can be easily obtained, the characters are more prominent and the background is naturally blurred. When shooting, it should be noted that the foreground cannot be a messy scene, because when the camera is close to the model, the foreground will be clearer in the picture. Changing the distance between the model and the background is also one of the methods to obtain shallow depth of field. Arranging the model at a certain distance from the background (not necessarily close to the model) can also achieve a perfect shallow depth of field effect. Simply put, the farther away the model is from the background, the easier it is to form a shallow depth of field, thus obtaining a greater blur effect.

6. Three-point composition method to make characters become visual centers

Three-dimensional composition can be divided into horizontal three-dimensional composition and vertical three-dimensional composition. When shooting a portrait, the picture is divided into three equal parts horizontally and vertically. The torso of the person can be placed on each dividing line, and the face or eyes of the person can be placed on one of its four intersections, so that the person can be more clearly highlighted.

7. Curve composition method to express female body softness

Curve composition is divided into S-shaped composition and C-shaped composition. When shooting female portraits, S-shaped or C-shaped compositions are often used to show the femininity and sexiness of the body. Among them, S-shaped composition is the most commonly used, and C-shaped composition also has a good performance effect in expressing women's feminine figure, but it is weaker than S-shaped composition. Usually, when a woman with a good figure stands naturally, she can shoot a beautiful S-shaped curve from the side, but if she shoots from the front, the model needs to be slightly tilted. In addition to these two angles, you can also form a sexier S-shaped curve by lying down.

8. Diagonal composition method stretches the beauty of characters.

Diagonal composition is often used in portrait photography. When the posture or body movements of the characters appear diagonally in the picture and occupy enough space, the diagonal composition method is formed.

The stretching effect produced by diagonal composition has a very good effect on expressing the slender figure of women or beautifying the defects of the subject's figure. When using this composition method to shoot portraits, the model should have at least one instep stretched straight, so that the body lines extend from the legs to the instep, thus lengthening the body lines.

9. Triangle composition method to express the sense of picture stability

Triangle composition is a typical composition form in portrait photography, which is divided into regular triangle, inverted triangle and oblique triangle. When shooting, the limbs or postures of the characters are combined into a triangle. This composition has a strong sense of stability and upward impact, and the face of the person is usually located at the top of the triangle as the visual center.

10. Portrait shooting in horizontal frame

The horizontal frame composition is widely used by people mainly because the horizontal frame conforms to people's visual habits and physiological characteristics, because people's eyes are horizontal and many objects extend in the horizontal direction. Portrait photography suitable for people and environment can also be used to shoot group portraits.