How to shoot portraits

1, rational use of light In portrait photography, the use of light is very important. It is best to use "uniform" light,

So that it can directly or indirectly illuminate the main characters, and the contrast between high light and low light should be moderate.

The most taboo of portrait shooting is to use direct sunlight overhead. It can produce shadows around people's eye sockets, noses and chins.

In order to avoid this destructive light effect as much as possible, it is usually ideal to choose soft light, such as scattered light from the sky or self-made reflector.

2. Moderate exposure

When shooting portraits, if the light on the scene is relatively uniform, you can measure the light from the position where the camera is located, and let the exposure instrument average the exposure value of the high light and low light parts.

If you are in a relatively complex lighting environment, you should use spot metering to measure the light of people's faces to get accurate exposure.

3. Use a large aperture.

Although a small aperture can make the background environment clear, it will divert the attention of the subject.

Shooting with a larger aperture will blur the background and make it out of focus, making the subject the only object that attracts attention in the picture.

Sometimes you need to use a small aperture to take a portrait of the environment. To this end, you need to keep the surrounding background clear, bring the subject and the surrounding environment into the picture together, and reflect the personality characteristics of the subject through environmental characteristics and details.

4. Try to compose vertically

The composition of the horizontal picture is good for the group image, but the camera should be adjusted to the vertical picture position when shooting a single picture.

Vertical framing is more suitable for a single portrait, because the vertical rectangles of the main characters in this framing correspond.

5. Long focal length

If you shoot with a camera with a focal length of 135, you should choose a lens with a focal length of 85 to 135 mm, because a lens with a shorter focal length (below 50mm) tends to exaggerate the features of the face.

When using a lens of 85 to 135mm, which is often called portrait lens, the sense of perspective is compressed, so that the five senses will show the correct proportion. If a len with a long focal length exceeding 200 mm is use,

It will make the face look peaceful. So it's better to take portraits with a medium telescope.