How to choose the shooting angle in portrait photography

In portrait photography, posture and azimuth angle are the focus of character modeling. Posture refers to some form of the subject's body, hands and feet. Azimuth angle refers to the orientation of the subject's face, which is called azimuth for short. Both of them vary from person to person, from thing to thing, and there is no fixed format, but they are generally based on the principles of beauty and nature, and are properly selected and organized. Let's take a look at how portrait photography chooses the shooting angle.

1, posture

Characters have different body shapes such as fat, thin, wide and short, and choose or organize certain postures.

Straight, facing the camera, easy to show the width of the body, show a straight line, feel solemn or dull.

The side and body form a certain side angle with the shooting lens, which is easy to show the body lines, especially for women. For a relatively fat figure, when shooting a half-length sideways portrait, you can put your back close to the edge of the picture, and you can get the effect of hiding in the bunker.

Standing tall and straight, it is easy to show the upward temperament of the subject.

Sitting hunchbacked sideways, the chest is not straight, which is characterized by leisure. Suitable for rest, conversation, reading, writing and other plots, and can be used for busts of all ages.

Tilting, no matter what angle the body tilts, can give people a lively and dynamic visual effect. In addition, use gestures to match the photos taken.

Step 2: Face the angle

There are many azimuth angles of figure photography: the azimuth is called a decahedron, and the subject is symmetrical on the screen; Nine faces, the orientation of which forms a side angle of 18 degrees with the shooting lens; The side angle of the octant is 36 degrees; The side angle of the heptagon is 54 degrees; The side angle of sextant is 72 degrees; A pentahedron has a side angle of 90 degrees. At this time, the subject only shows one eye on the screen, that is, the whole side. There is no fixed format for determining the angle, but the following two principles should be mastered:

Select the angle according to the facial contour.

The characters' faces are long, round and square. When taking pictures, you should combine the face shape and choose the angle. Egg-shaped face, front and side angles are suitable for shooting. Round face, for children, any angle is no problem; For adults, it is more appropriate to use seven or eight facets laterally, which can give people proper concealment. Square face, for men, positive angle shooting can show masculinity better; For women, you can choose a certain side angle to hide your cheekbones. For a long face, it is appropriate to choose seven sides to hide the length.

Choose the angle according to the five senses.

Facial parts mainly refer to forehead, nose, cheeks and cheekbones. For people with flat forehead, straight nose, flat cheeks and hidden cheekbones, the azimuth angle is more selective and they can shoot in any direction; For people with prominent forehead, sunken nose and high cheekbones, it is generally more appropriate to choose positive angles. If the side angle is used, it is easy to expose the shortcomings of the above-mentioned unsightly parts.

concept

A long time ago, people described their image in various ways and needs. The earliest portraits appeared in paintings, especially in the early19th century. At that time, oil painting portraits were very fashionable, and their creation became more and more mature, resulting in many excellent portraits. Shortly after the invention of photography, portraits began to enter the field of photography. Of course, due to the limitation of technical conditions at that time, portrait shooting was only in the initial stage. With the continuous progress of photography technology and the development of people's artistic concepts, portrait photography has undergone great changes today. Nowadays, with the birth of electronic flash device, high-speed autofocus lens and new photosensitive materials, a photographer can complete some realistic and natural portrait masterpieces of various subjects in one day, which greatly enriches the photographer's creative possibilities.

trait

Photography: Tiziana Pielert Moreover, quite a few portrait photography works only explain the image of the subject, and there is no specific plot. The main task of figure photography is to show the events and activities that the subject participates in, and its main task is to show the specific plot, instead of showing the appearance and expression of the subject with vivid images. The important difference between them is whether they describe the appearance of the characters in detail. Whether it's a single person or a group of people, whether it's a snapshot in a scene or a pose in a photo studio, whether it's a plot or not, as long as it's a photo that mainly shows the specific appearance and mental state of the subject, it belongs to the category of portrait photography. Those photographic works that mainly show the activities and plots of the characters and reflect a certain theme of life, but the appearance of the subject is not very prominent, whether it is close-up or whole body, can only belong to the category of character photography. Of course, in a broad sense, it belongs to people photography.

Portrait photography takes the description and description of the appearance and manner of the subject as its performance task, and the characters should have distinctive looks. Can be divided into three categories: photography indoor portrait, indoor specific environment portrait, outdoor portrait. Portrait photography needs both form and spirit.