How to use environmental elements to shoot indoor portraits

Lead: Are you bored taking portraits or taking photos in the shed for a long time? Indeed, if the entry elements are too simple, it is difficult to stimulate creative inspiration. Not only that, too simple entry elements will also make the work lack bright spots, stiff and thin. Let's have a look!

Try to add more natural and life-like elements when shooting indoor portraits. Abandon artificial light sources and use ambient light to shoot real and rich indoor portraits. Don't say there is no place to practice, just start shooting in the most familiar family environment.

For centuries, painters like to use the sunlight coming in from the window to paint portraits, because this kind of light has strong modeling ability and good projection. We can also add highlights to the photos in this way during shooting.

Sunlight entering through a window is usually scattered light. Its characteristics are: large lighting area, soft and uniform, which can not only reproduce rich layering and texture, but also better express the three-dimensional sense, making it an ideal choice for shooting indoor portraits.

Time-sensitive photographic process of indoor light

During the day, the intensity and angle of direct sunlight are different because of the different time in the morning and evening. According to the different angles between the sun and the ground, people can divide the change of direct sunlight in a whole day into three illumination stages.

Morning light and sunset

When the sun rises from the eastern horizon and falls below the horizon in the evening, the vertical plane of the scene is illuminated in a large area, leaving a long projection. Sunlight passes through the thick atmosphere and the light is very soft.

The air perspective effect is strong in the morning and evening, especially under backlight illumination. If you use this light to illuminate and take close-ups, the scenery will be soft; On-site photography is suitable for shades, rich in layers and strong in spatial perspective.

This period of time is very short and the light intensity changes greatly. When shooting, we should seize the time and control the exposure one by one.

Morning and afternoon sunshine

It refers to the illumination from 8: 00 a.m. to11:00 and from 2: 00 p.m. to 5: 00 p.m., with stable illumination intensity, which can better represent the outline, three-dimensional form and texture of the ground scenery.

At this time, sunlight not only illuminates the vertical scene, but also illuminates the horizontal scene around the characters, producing a lot of reflected light. At this time, the contrast between light and shade of the picture is excellent.

The midday sun

It can also be regarded as the top light, shooting the ground vertically from top to bottom. The horizontal plane of the scene is generally illuminated, but the vertical plane is rarely or completely in shadow. At this time, the angle of sunlight is often affected by the season. Generally speaking, the aperture should be narrowed when taking pictures at noon, and the aperture should be enlarged when shooting people. At noon, the horizontal brightness is large, and the vertical brightness is small, which is equivalent to photometric lighting, so it is necessary to enlarge the aperture by half a step.

Usually the main scene of indoor natural light portrait is the window, because the light here is the best. Floor-to-ceiling windows have large illumination area and uniform illumination, which is suitable for general shooting. The light coming in through the shutter is linear, so many parallel shadows can be cast on the model, and the width of the linear light can be controlled by adjusting the shutter lever, which is more suitable for shooting close-ups.

Control the distance from the main body to the window.

When the target approaches the window,

Because one side is direct outdoor light, the brightness is very high, and the shadow side is very dark.

This creates a strong contrast between light and shade, which makes it difficult for us to take into account the details and levels of light and shade, and brings great difficulties to exposure.

The shadow brightness of an indoor portrait cannot be the same as that of an outdoor portrait. It can only rely on the weak reflection of indoor walls, and these reflections are sometimes insufficient. The closer the figure is to the window, the greater the contrast between light and shade.

Utilization effect: a small amount of fill light can outline the outline lines of characters and describe the texture of transparent clothing.

When the subject is far away from the window

This is actually equivalent to weakening the main light and strengthening the auxiliary light. The brightness of the main light decreases and the contrast between the shadow surface and it decreases. In this way, the contrast between light and dark poles is narrowed, and the color tone tends to be dull, but the layers are rich and the details are good.

Utilization effect: the facial contrast is small, and the light and shade transition is even, which can show the soft details of the female face. However, it should be noted that after leaving the window, the light intensity will decrease, the light will weaken, and sometimes even the shutter speed will be very slow. It's best to prepare a tripod in advance in case of emergency.

In addition, the use of ambient light, such as desk lamps, chandeliers, etc., will also have unexpected effects in the case of insufficient light.

In indoor natural light shooting, there is often insufficient light, or it is already very dark, so at this time, you can use a desk lamp or other light sources you can find to take very beautiful photos.

Indoor backlit portraits must pay attention to metering. Here I introduce a little trick.

First, let the model stand in the light, then let the model's face fill the picture, and the AV file automatically measures the light. Remember the metering data at this time, then switch the AV file to the M file and reset the aperture and shutter data recorded in the AV file.

After setting, you can shoot in reverse light and adjust the light and shade by controlling the shutter speed according to the actual situation. In this way, the model's face is exposed normally, but the background will be overexposed, which is called backlight high-profile. In addition, you can also fill the face with a reflector. In the absence of a reflector, you can use a pure white pillow to fill the light, and the effect is softer than the reflector.

The metering of backlight dimming is relatively simple, and it can be handled directly by spot metering.

composition

The indoor space is relatively small and the background is relatively small. What a mess? How not to fall into the quagmire of life photos depends on your framing skills.

Composition framing should not only consider the light factor, but also subtract the picture. Simplicity is an extremely important rule in this kind of composition. Don't blindly pull all the environmental elements you think are interesting into the picture. Background should not be used as an element to realize the highlights of such works. But more consideration should be given to how to make the background set off the main body and highlight the theme.

Props and costumes

Due to the limitations of indoor shooting, the selection and planning of props and costumes is particularly important.

? Indoor natural light portrait is the most important thing to reflect a natural and comfortable feeling. Models' expressions and actions, including costume props, must be close to life and not exaggerated (pose should also pay attention, especially don't use the beautiful posture in fashion clothing films). This will not only make your work unique in style, but also make people feel that the picture is extremely uncoordinated, and this kind of film should give people a real feeling.