How to take excellent portrait photos? What are the skills?

Portrait photography or just portrait is a photo of a person or a small group of people, in which human face is the main element. The purpose of this kind of photography is to show the similarity, emotion and personality of the subject. Usually, the face is located in the center of the picture, but some people like photos including other parts of the body, and there are portraits taken for non-professional purposes, just to retain memories. No matter what the goal is, you will be happy to learn how to take a good portrait. If you are a novice, the following 12 suggestions will help you take excellent portrait photos.

1. Determine the target

Before taking a picture, you need to determine its purpose. What others think of photos will depend on what you want to show. You need to decide whether to get a wider picture of the face from a certain angle or just a part of the face. You also need to decide where the face should be: vertical or horizontal. For example, if you are taking a portrait of a child, you can take a horizontal portrait, which can often be seen on children's postcards or greeting cards.

2. Choose a shooting theme

According to the type of photos you want to take, you need to choose a good shooting theme. If you are in business, you'd better choose a beautiful model. What matters is how he or she poses, how the model expresses his or her feelings and conveys the main information.

Select location and background

Find the perfect shooting location, carefully consider the background you choose and keep it as simple as possible, because they will distract your attention from the subject. A solid background is an ideal choice for commercial photography.

Choose posture

Before you start shooting, you must consider the correct posture, which will help make the scene more dynamic. Therefore, before you start shooting, please take the time to plan some creative and interesting poses, which will make you feel confident and energetic, and it also depends on how you need to correctly adjust the pose of the model to convey the required emotions.

Shoot different emotions

Don't just clap a simple smile. The emotions on the face should be varied. Some shots may show a grin, while others are just a smile. Some shots may look serious, some may look mysterious, and some people look sad. Try to capture different emotions.

Use props

Using props can help your model feel relaxed and add drama to the image. Props are very helpful for telling stories and can give photos an interesting or mysterious appearance. You may notice that the audience has different perceptions of using different channels in front of the camera.

be concentrated

It's not enough to shoot a model in the right posture. You also need to give the photo a sincerity. You can do this by keeping the model away from the camera, so that her attention will not be interrupted by the camera and the moment of shooting. You can focus the model on an object, such as a flower or something else. In this way, the image looks more interesting.

8. Try different shots

Try to use different lenses when taking portrait photos, which will give you completely different effects. Try shooting with 50mm and 24mm lenses, and you will feel different effects.

9. Use ambient light

There are many ways to make use of the surrounding environment to take impressive photos. For example, a model may lean against a door or a table to help capture a good shot. If you look at it creatively, the environment can make your photos unique.

10. Try different lighting.

You can use different types of lights to provide completely different effects for the same photo. You can use many lights to make the model look bright, or use small lights to make it look darker. You can also look for "golden time" (the time before sunset) to provide golden luster for your skin. Indoor, you can put the model near the window to provide it with soft reflected light.

1 1. Body fills the screen.

Portrait photography looks unique. Unlike what we usually see on various social networks, we can fill the screen with the subject and only focus on the face of the subject, which helps to attract more attention to the eyes, lips and hair. Of course, the main body is filled with pictures for clarity and beauty.

12. Use different shooting points

In addition to different lighting and backgrounds, you can also use different shooting points. By highlighting some parts of the subject, you can make the image more attractive and even affect the overall impression of the image. Find the shooting angle that makes your shooting attractive, find the right point and angle, and take wonderful photos. Wide-angle lens can be used to capture the environment around the object.