10 Novices' Skills of Shooting Beautiful Portraits

Lead: Portrait photography has always been a profound knowledge, seemingly simple, whether it is a beginner or a photographer for many years. But in fact, there are many skills in it. After taking a long time, you will find that many photos are similar, but the model has changed. So what skills can beginners learn? Let's take a look at this 10 easy-to-understand portrait technique!

10 Skills for Novices to Take Beautiful Portraits (1) Flexible use of lens focal length

Whether it is wide angle, telephoto or standard focal length, it also has its own characteristics. When taking portraits, you can think about what focal length lens can produce different effects. Even if the model is the same person and the composition changes, the result is very different!

Characteristics of various focal lengths

Telefocus: it can compress the background and reduce the sense of space between the background and the characters; Because the lens is far away from the M-shape, models who are not used to shooting will also look more natural. Of course, telephoto can also make it easier to shoot shallow depth of field.

Standard focal length: If the standard focal length is 50mm, you can shoot more "realistic and natural" works. If you use a fixed-focus lens, the lens deformation will be smaller, and the focal length will not be too long or too short, which is very suitable for street shooting or when it is inconvenient to change mirrors.

Wide-angle: Not only can you "take people by scenery", so that the model has an immersive effect, but the wide-angle lens also has the element of lens deformation, which can make the model more slender, but you must control it carefully to avoid taking photos too strangely!

(B) looking for non-line-of-sight angle

When taking landscape photos, we often say that we should find a special angle to make the photos more varied. In fact, people are also like this. Don't just shoot at eye level, try shooting from high, low and side, so that the same model will bring different feelings.

? (3) Try the "off-plane flashing light" effect.

Off-plane flash is a profound knowledge, which requires a certain distance, angle and flash output skills. Beginners should practice more and try more.

(d) using the "calendering" technique

Calendering means that there is plenty of sunshine when we shoot in the sun. At this time, we can set the camera to M mode, reduce the height of the background by speeding up the shutter, and then illuminate the people (foreground) with powerful flash or outdoor lighting, so that not only the background is rich in color, but also the people will stand out like "light".

(5) Looking for backlight

Backlight is a very useful portrait photography technique at sunrise and sunset. Just let the camera shoot in the direction of the sun with natural light, and if necessary, improve the overall brightness, you can take warm and emotional photos! If it is shot at sunset and dusk, the edge of the model's hair will glow with glittering gold, which is very beautiful!

? (6) Use silhouette and reflection

Silhouettes can also be used for backlighting? When paying attention, the model's movements should be clear in order to effectively show the black outline; And remember to focus on the model, so that the main body is clearer and the outline is clearer.

Reflection technology is very interesting. We can make good use of glass, mirror, water surface, metal and other objects that reflect light, so that the model's face or scenery can be reflected in the photo to form a symmetrical composition. Remember to ask the model not to look at the camera, so that the photo will be more emotional!

? ? ? (7) Take the foreground as a "photo frame" by shooting things.

This skill is very commonly used by the author! Let the camera face and lean against some objects, such as flowers, leaves, cups, pillars, etc., and then shoot, because the objects are close to the camera and are usually blurred because of the depth of the scene, so that they can become "foreground", act as "photo frame" and highlight portraits! You will find that many wonderful portrait photos also use similar techniques! ? www.fsbus.com

? (eight) replace the flash with LED lights.

Have you ever seen LED lighting used to shoot videos? Now many brands have launched similar products, and the prices are getting cheaper and cheaper. If you are a novice photographer, you may not be familiar with external flash. At this time, you can choose to use this LED light. The advantage of this is that you can immediately see the effect of the light received by the model, which makes it easier for you to shoot the works in your mind. But its light source intensity is limited, so it is not suitable for long distance or calendering.

(9) Add color to the light source

Many students are also afraid to use flash. One of the main reasons is that people will look strange after using the flash. A large part of this problem is: (1) Because the intensity output is too strong, it overshadows the natural light in the background; (2) The output color of the flash is different from that of the spotlight. For example, the spotlight is warm light, and the flash is generally at a medium color temperature of 5500 K. After using the flash, the color of the subject light is different from that of the spotlight, which will become strange. The solution is to add colored cellophane or original color filter to the flash to change the color of the flash output.

? (10) Take a close-up shot

Try to find the most beautiful part of the model, and then take close-ups, so that you can take more emotional photos!

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