Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography major - 10 wedding photographer's skills of taking portraits

10 wedding photographer's skills of taking portraits

1. Use telephoto lens.

Many photographers say that the 50mm lens is a "necessary" portrait lens, which provides a standard and conforms to the visual range of human eyes. But this scene is too common. In order to create more interesting pictures, we can use 200mm or 85mm lens to shoot portraits, which can bring you unexpected surprises. The telephoto lens makes the characters more prominent, and it is easy to get Jiao Wai blur effect. On the other hand, it will also make it difficult for you to communicate with people because you are too far away (especially when using a 200mm lens). Our solution is to send one person to communicate with the new person and the other person to shoot in the distance.

2. Find a new shooting angle

Many times we will insist on shooting whatever we see. However, there are actually many different shooting angles that can bring us freshness. In the following photo, I let the bride sit on the ground, so that I can concentrate on shooting the bride's face and hair accessories and blur the rest of her body with blur effect.

3. Use off-board flash

In a wedding photography, we never leave directly without a flash. The flash on the top of the machine makes the facial expressions of the characters dull and ugly. Generally speaking, I will use the off-camera flash to illuminate the subject from the side. Sideflash will bring a large area of light and shadow to the portrait, making the figure more stereoscopic and the background more dramatic.

Step 4 Press the sun with a flash.

It is difficult to shoot with natural light at noon. But some lamps can change the light ratio of photos and reduce the influence of sunlight on photos for us. We need 2-4 off-board flashlights to generate enough light against the sun. Putting the flash close to the subject can also effectively increase the amount of light entering.

Step 5 Use the backlight effect

It does take time to train your eyes and find beautiful light, but once you do this, your work will change dramatically. In the scene of wedding photography, we can use light with slightly strong low angle as backlight or side backlight to add edge light to the main body of the photo.

6. Pay attention to reflections and contours

Learning to look for images with reflections and outlines will bring visual freshness to your photos. In addition, reflection and silhouette techniques can be associated with other photographic elements. For example, the silhouette brought by the window light will often give your work a framed composition.

Create prospects

We can add points to photos in many ways, one of which is to create prospects. Many times, you can deliberately find the right elements to put in front of the main body as the foreground, which can be branches, household items, daily visible things, and it is best to have a direct connection with the wedding. This technique will be easier to use when using telephoto lenses.

8. Use sunlight as a separate light source

For most photographers, it is easier to shoot without sunlight. But occasionally shooting only with sunlight can also make the photos more unique. The background and shadows around the photo can highlight your subject, and all you have to do is to make the couple face the sun.

9. Use video lights to fill the light.

When no other light source is available, video LED lamp is also a good choice. Its advantage is that it is a constant light source, which allows you to get what you see. Common video lights can last for more than 2 hours. Enough light for our shooting.

10. Change the color temperature of the flash with color film.

Adding orange and blue color cards in front of the flash can effectively change the color temperature of light and make photos reflect different emotions. In addition, adjusting the white balance while using color film can imitate sunlight.