Single-lamp and multi-lamp portrait photography skills

Lead: Making good use of flash can expand the shooting range, but how to buy it to meet the demand? What can I do to make it different? If more than two flashing lights are used, what are the interesting changes? This time, let's study how to liberate the light print of creation from one flashing light to multiple flashing lights, and think about how to build our own flashing light system.

Familiar with flash system, starting with single lamp.

It is believed that most photographers will be more or less limited by the output, range and light quality of external flash when shooting works with a single lamp, and these problems can be solved by a single external flash. But there are many lights that need special effects, so more than one flash (light source) is needed to support them. Of course, the processing of multi-light shooting is certainly more complicated than that of single light, but if you want to enter this more flexible creative world, you must first start with being familiar with single light.

In cloudy environment, we often use a single lamp as directional light source, and make the facial features of the model look more three-dimensional through appropriate shadows. When taking a sample photo, slightly lowering EV makes the background slightly underexposed, and using a high-angle single lamp to focus the light on the person in the center of the picture can better focus the eyes.

Main light: the main color of an image.

In the past, when shooting with a single lamp, we usually only emphasized the direction and output of the light source, but before introducing the multi-lamp technique, we should first introduce the concept of "main lamp". The so-called main light is the light source that determines the exposure of the subject. Broadly speaking, it is also the main light source to set the tone of the image, which is used to create the atmosphere and create the lighting of the subject. That is to say, in the multi-light environment, even if other effect light is not turned on, the effect of Yi Deng's shooting has already taken shape in the final work. Although the main light is often the strongest light source among all light sources, it is not absolute, so when constructing the concept of main light, don't judge it by the strength of output.

Speaking of it, the main light that people use most often is natural light. We often joke that the sun is good light, with large output and stable light quality. It's a pity that the position can't be adjusted at will, only to match its time. From this concept, in fact, when discussing the main light, we can put the flash aside for the time being. For example, when we use natural light to shoot, the most commonly used' smooth light' is to use sunlight as the main light, and the front is high; Most of them also belong to the use of main lights, such as shooting with sunlight at an angle, or using off-board flash as the light source of Rembrandt and side light.

There is no light in the picture above, but there is light in the picture below.

Auxiliary light: the effect light of the image

As for the backlight and side backlight that everyone likes to use recently, it is sometimes difficult to define whether it belongs to the main light or the auxiliary light (effect light), which depends entirely on the effect that the shot works want to present. For example, if you want to present a silhouette, then the backlight belongs to the main light. As for the edge light or the lack of details in the background, it should belong to the category of effect light. The shooting technique of overexposure of background and normal exposure of backlight subject here is a popular expression of portrait shooting at present. Although the output of background light is stronger than that of the front, if the main light source is analyzed, the diffuse light source in the backlight shadow is the main one. It can be seen that the determination of the main light is not simply based on the output, but on the main axis that the image wants to present.

The directivity and texture of the main light source below are the important keys to determine the image style. When shooting the model, it rained continuously. Using a single lamp and a soft square cover, the skin texture looks soft and shiny. Because of the oblique illumination, the green leaves in the background are not directly illuminated, which can effectively separate the face from the background and make the image more stereoscopic.

The sun must be the main light?

Under the concept of main light, there is a very important concept, that is, the "light source" should be regarded as a direct part, and the diffused light on the reflecting surface or under the shadow should also be regarded as an independent light source. Therefore, under certain conditions, the sun is not necessarily the main light. For example, taking a portrait on a cloudy day, the sun shines through the clouds, which can act like a large shadowless cover. At this time, if we use flashing lights to emit light, we can usually use flashing lights as the main light and sunlight as the auxiliary light.

In addition, recent online forums often use backlight shooting, and the faces in the shadow of backlight are almost normal, even overexposed. The main light should be regarded as the diffused light on the reflecting surface or the shadow surface without the supplementary light of flash lamp. If you add a flash or reflector, it is the same as the main light concept we talked about on the right page, and they all belong to the main light in the same direction. Therefore, sunlight that causes backlighting should naturally be regarded as a powerful auxiliary lamp (effect light). Interestingly, if the traditional shooting method deliberately only slightly fills the front to make the face appear underexposed, or simply takes a silhouette, then the outline of the object becomes the main body of the image, and then the backlight sunlight will be the main light.

In the following two pictures, only one main light is lit at the height on the right side of the picture. In the picture on the left, a flashlight lights up against the wall, which has a strong directivity. The light source makes the model and the brick wall form a strong three-dimensional sense, and the image style is more individual. On the right, a 45-degree angle is used to fill the light. It can be found that the shadow on the model is hidden behind, and the brick wall has a softer image style because the light source direction is close to vertical and lacks three-dimensional sense.

Main lamp equals single lamp?

In fact, the so-called main light can not be achieved by a flashing light. After all, sometimes shooting requires large coverage, or because the brightness of a single flash will be insufficient because of weakening after softening the light source. At this time, more flashlights are needed to increase the output or expand the range. Therefore, co-directional lighting should be regarded as a part of the main light.

There is no light in the picture above, but there is light in the picture below. The main light is almost on the front, but because the flash is concentrated on the model and the angle of turning back is adopted, there is still a three-dimensional shadow formed by the nose on the face.

Setting concept of single auxiliary lamp

Before the concept of main light and auxiliary light appeared, I believe that people often used single light as effect light, such as putting edge light behind the main body, using direct lens to make dazzling effect, reducing the heavy shadow caused by main light, making special light and shadow, or emphasizing specific objects? And so on, these are commonly used spectroscopic techniques, and the main light (main light source) at this time is usually the sun. I believe everyone has the experience of using flash to make effect light. Proper use can add a lot of points to the image, but improper use will weaken or even destroy the atmosphere that the photo wants to create.

So if you want to use it properly, you should first pay attention not to destroy the effect of the main light. Sunlight (the main light source) comes from one side. We can use auxiliary light to reduce the contrast of the backlight surface, but the output should be carefully adjusted. If the brightness of the auxiliary light is equal to that of the main light source, the image will often become too dull and lack of three-dimensional sense. Secondly, we should pay too much attention to it. For example, we will highlight a specific area in the picture to allude to the relationship between the subject and the background, but when more than one object in the picture is emphasized by light, the visual focus may shift. Simply put, the focus of the auxiliary light (effect light) is often not to illuminate the object, but the auxiliary main light emphasizes the focus in the image.

There is no edge light on the left, but there is edge light on the right. After comparison, it is easy to see that the above picture uses a single off-camera flash, and the edge effect light is made from the right. However, the light source of this one can be subdivided into the diffuse light in the shadow as the main light, and the sunlight in the background backlight as the auxiliary light. The flicker light we added is the second effect light source in another direction, emphasizing the hair and the model figure curve. So although only one flash is used, this photo is the result of the synthesis of three light sources.

You can clearly see the concept of sub-lamp in the following photos. In the image, all the light of the model comes from the diffuse light source on cloudy days, while the background light simply hooks the metal texture of the background, thus separating people from the scene and increasing the three-dimensional sense of the image.