Perfecting the skills of outdoor portrait photography

When learning to take portraits at first, you may focus more on the "quantity" part, and explore the experience through multiple shots, so as to accumulate quantity and achieve qualitative change. I have been filming for a long time, and I have made some progress and gains more or less, but I can't learn. I must constantly review and try new challenges to make faster progress. Let's take a look at 1 1 outdoor portrait photography skills. Have you mastered them? If really all conquered, there should be a greater leap! Let's take a look together.

Select the focus manually.

When shooting in autofocus mode, is it customary to choose the focus for the camera? It may not be a big problem to do this when shooting general scenery, but there may be some out-of-focus situations when shooting portraits. In the autofocus system of a general camera, several focus points are often judged by the close-range objects or occlusion with obvious contrast between light and dark, and then a point is selected as the focus point by calculating the average shooting distance. But sometimes the focus of its judgment is not necessarily the part we want to focus on, so the accuracy of manual selection of single-point focus is higher.

Focus on the eyes

In portrait photography, especially in portrait photography, eyes are a very important element, often the soul of the whole work, which can vividly convey the inner feelings of the subject. In addition, the eyes are also the sharpest element on the human face, and the recognition degree of focus judgment is also relatively high. When shooting with a large aperture lens, focusing on the eyes will have a better effect, because the effect of shallow depth of field can even soften the facial skin of the subject.

Large aperture lens captures beautiful shallow depth of field.

Although shallow depth of field is not absolutely beautiful, it is undeniable that many portraits with shallow depth of field are generally popular. Shallow depth of field makes the subject stand out, and with natural light, sometimes it can create a sense of light in fresh air, achieving a dreamy and aesthetic effect. However, when shooting with a large aperture lens, more attention should be paid to the choice of focus, otherwise the subject's eyes will easily fail.

Don't shoot people with wide-angle lenses, okay?

When it comes to wide-angle lenses, I am most impressed by two things: one is that it can cover a vast landscape, and the other is obvious barrel deformation. The wide-angle lens commonly used in landscape shooting is not recommended by some photographers because few people like the effect of facial deformation. Usually, when practicing portrait shooting, it is better to choose a lens with an equivalent focal length of more than 50 mm. Although the equivalent focal length is below 70mm, there will be some deformation around it, but it is not so obvious to maintain it above 50 mm. Just, can a wide-angle lens really not be used to shoot people? The answer is no, but everyone should get the hang of it.

Shoot in RAW file

In the era of digital photography, RAW files, like negatives, record the uncompressed original data information of images. After shooting, users can use special editing software to adjust the data including exposure and white balance within a certain range, without degrading the image quality like editing JPEG files directly. I believe that many novice players have long known the benefits of shooting RAW files. Although the file is relatively large and needs special interpretation software to read and browse, it is an unavoidable choice on the road of photography learning. After trying, you will know that you will benefit a lot! If you don't know or want to review the benefits of RAW, you can learn about it here.

Carry a gray card and check the normal white balance.

Generally, the problem of white balance will be encountered, mostly in indoor shooting. Due to different light, the color temperature of the picture is abnormal. Faced with this situation, many cameras now have corresponding white balance modes to choose from to alleviate the abnormal color temperature, although not every time. In addition, you can also find a white object at the scene as a reference standard. After shooting the RAW file, you can use the eyedropper to edit and adjust the software, and draw the white place in the picture in the form of custom white balance. More particular ones will use gray cards instead of white objects as reference.

Gray card, gray card, so people may directly think it is gray cardboard, just like black card. In fact, the general gray card usually uses the gray with the concentration of 18%, which is closer to the white that people see. In addition, all kinds of white paper have different white types, and some may add fluorescent agents to affect judgment. In contrast, 18% gray is the standard.

Some photographers may think that there is no white balance problem in outdoor shooting, but it is not. During the day, the sun will pass through different illumination angles, and the color temperature will also change. A serious photographer will take a gray card every time the sun changes to ensure the accuracy of white balance.

Learn to deal with strong light and strong light.

Photography itself is the art of light and shadow, and it is certainly the same in portrait creation. Different light can produce different portrait effects. Usually people shoot outside, so I suggest you avoid it when the sun is strong at noon. Not only is the weather hot and sunny, but the tough top light effect is often poor. However, if we really want to take action under such circumstances, there are corresponding countermeasures. You can choose to shoot in the shade to avoid strong sunlight directly on the subject's face, forming a strong contrast between light and shade. At the same time, we should also pay attention to whether there are cracks such as trees that will produce strange spots on the subject's face. For more portrait shooting methods under strong light, you can refer to some tips here.

In addition, you should be very careful when shooting portraits in cloudless weather in Wan Li. It is best to carry a soft light plate or reflector, which can replace clouds to create the effect of soft sunshine.

Pay attention to the light and shadow on the subject's face.

I don't like taking pictures in bright light. It is precisely because of that tough light that the light and shadow effect is not soft enough, and it may even reflect unnatural light and shadow on the subject's face. In fact, as long as you shoot in a scene with sunlight or other obvious light sources, if you don't pay attention, a similar situation may occur. For example, you can leave shadows of other objects in the scene, such as street lamps, shade trees, eaves, etc. Part of the subject's face, because you are standing in the wrong position and facing in the wrong direction. Even if the contrast is not so exaggerated under strong light, it will still affect the visual beauty.

Make a reflector or soft mask with the materials at hand.

With the improvement of portrait shooting level and the deepening of research, reflector will become one of the indispensable accessories in shooting. You don't have to buy ready-made reflectors, you can also DIY with some white plastic foam boards. If you need a reflector temporarily at the shooting scene, but don't bring it, you can find similar white walls, mirrors, etc. Fill the light for the subject. Facing the strong sunshine overhead, you can also try to use the old white sheets at home (the large size used by two people is better), plus the clothesline and clothes rack, and cooperate with the trees, street lamps and other pillars in the venue to build a huge soft light cover by DIY. But remember to fix the hanging edges of the sheets, otherwise the wind will probably lift them off or float them into the picture.