How to make your portrait photography stand out?

Everyone has his own opinion about portrait photography, but there are always some established rules, such as accurate exposure, not using wide-angle lenses and so on. However, rules are meant to be broken. Sometimes, creatively breaking the routine will make your portrait photography more outstanding. Let's have a look!

1、HDR

The popularity of HDR should be more than a decade ago when digital photography was just popular. At that time, HDR was so popular that I couldn't wait to do everything with HDR. Admittedly, HDR is still very effective in landscape photography, and it can synthesize a wider dynamic range. But it is rarely used in portrait photography, because most of the time we want our portraits to look soft, not always hard like HDR. In fact, when shooting sports photography or other more powerful photos, you can use HDR appropriately, which will bring you a brand-new look and feel.

2. Overexposure or underexposure

Whether it is portrait photography or photography with other subjects, we always pursue the accuracy of exposure. Unauthorized exposure is failure, yes. Especially in portrait photography, overexposure may cause the loss of skin details. Needless to say, the exposure is insufficient, and if there is a lot of dead black, the details are even more difficult to say.

But occasionally appropriate overexposure or underexposure can also be a shooting method. When shooting portraits, you should learn to adjust the exposure according to the different emotions of models and subjects.

Step 3 don't shoot in the eye

The eyes are the windows to the soul. We always say that when taking portraits, we should focus on our eyes and let them speak. This also shows that the purpose of most portrait photography is to capture their beauty by capturing their eyes. However, this has caused the focus of many photos to shift. Sometimes, instead of taking pictures of the model's eyes, we can cover them with shadows or other props to create another atmosphere, and the audience can also shift the focus of the picture to the whole picture. The concept of letting the model's emotions not interfere with the overall picture.

This method is often used in fashion photography. In fashion photography, the mood of the model is often not the focus, but the product or concept to be expressed in this photo.

Step 4 use a wide-angle lens

If you want to ask the best focal length of portrait shooting, I'm afraid no one will say wide-angle end, and few people use it below 50mm, let alone ultra-wide angle. Indeed, 50mm to 200mm is often the best focal length for portraits, which can provide less facial distortion and create a better sense of space. Below 50mm, it is mostly used by photographers for street shooting.

However, the performance of wide-angle lens can often bring a sense of comedy and drama to the audience. If you want to take an alternative portrait, you might as well use a wide-angle lens.

5. Let the model wear bright clothes

Although this is not a rule, most portraits often have a stable color scheme to achieve harmony and unity on the screen. But it is also good to wear bright and eye-catching clothes, and you can also use this method to enhance the sense of existence of the characters.

6. Avoid messy backgrounds.

When shooting works on any subject, we usually try to avoid messy background. Too messy background will disturb the integrity of the image, make the viewer's line of sight deviate, and can't highlight the main points. Portrait photography, in particular, is often handled in a simple and rude way. It is better to empty the background outside the main body with a large aperture.

But for portrait photography, you often want to show not only the model itself, but also the appropriate background and props, so as to make the photos more story-telling. The background serves the whole, and choosing a suitable background can highlight the subject's emotion.

7. Try to use all kinds of light sources.

Although lighting is not necessary, it is impossible for most non-professional photographers to light it. However, natural light can usually provide effective results. If you want to take better-looking photos, you can try to use other light sources, such as street lights, candlelight, street lamps, and even the light emitted by mobile phones.