How to shoot portraits at night?

Taking night portraits requires a lot of shooting skills, so do you want to know how to take night portraits? Let's have a look!

First, choose the clothes that best suit the night environment.

Before shooting, you have to decide the costume matching for the model.

Because the light is dark at night, it is best to avoid wearing dark clothes when shooting at night, and wear clothes that can contrast with the background.

White or bright color is the most suitable, which can highlight people and can also be used as a reflector to set off skin color.

Second, take a clear portrait at night

Shooting night portraits is mostly hand-held, and many novices are prone to take pictures when shooting night portraits by hand, so first of all, we must ensure that the photos are clear.

The light is dark at night, and when the main body of the character is in a dark place, it is easy to miss the focus of the face.

At this time, you can illuminate the subject with a small flashlight, aim at the face with a single focus, turn off the flashlight after the camera focuses on the subject, and then change the automatic focus to manual focus to shoot.

In the parameter setting of night portrait, the aperture should be as wide as possible, and then the safe shutter speed should be set according to the lighting environment and camera focal length, and the sensitivity should be improved to about ISO400~800. Then, the camera should be stable and can basically take clear portrait photos at night.

Third, the choice of shooting location

1. Street View

Limited by the dim light at night, the most convenient way to shoot the night scene theme is to take pictures in the brightly lit commercial street.

We can use street lamps to illuminate people, turn the aperture to the maximum, and blur the street lamps and headlights in the background, showing a colorful feeling.

When shooting, I first guide the model to lean against the railing, let her face face in the direction of strong light on the left, look up at the light source, look left, and indulge in the night. This kind of scene can be photographed when shopping with girlfriends.

go shopping

Many lights will be arranged in shops and other places in the city, which are bright and exquisite and suitable for shooting.

You can use the decorations in the shopping mall as the foreground to highlight the characters in the painting. Using single-point focusing, the focus will be on the girl's face for metering, and the ISO can be adjusted to around 800 to improve the brightness of the picture.

The blurring of foreground and background enriches the layering of photos.

3. High-rise buildings

It's easy to shoot emotional films at night. With the vast city lights as the background, you can create a blurred night scene atmosphere, and the photos you take are more story-telling.

For example, a girl holding a wine bottle and standing in a tall building in the city is not difficult to make people feel a little sad.

The environment at night is dominated by cool colors. In order to emphasize the contrast between the warm color of the model's skin color and the cool color of the scene behind him, when shooting, we can adjust the saturation and contrast higher in the camera's custom settings, and then manually adjust the warmer color temperature, and the K value is above 4000, so as to increase the warm color of the skin color as much as possible.

The strong contrast between cold and warm colors is the texture I pursue most when shooting emotional night scenes. The unbridled collision between the yellow highlight and the blue in the dark will not only make the picture full of visual impact, but also better show the level of the work.

Four. Manufacture of light source

1. Use LED lamps to make light sources.

When there is insufficient light in the environment, we can make our own light source, such as filling the model's face with LED lights. When used, it should be polished at the angle of the micro side of the face to make the face more stereoscopic.

When using LED, set the color temperature according to your own needs. There are two knobs on it: white and yellow. I usually mix yellow light with white light and turn to the weakest one.

Be careful not to let the light source get too close, and the light should keep a certain distance from the model to ensure the softness of the light.

2. Use creative props as light sources

We can also borrow some creative props as light sources, such as fireworks and candles in fairy wand.

When shooting, the aperture is enlarged and the focus is on the model's face. Glittering fairy wand forms a jumping point, matched with Japanese kimono, like a sweet girl setting off fireworks at a Japanese summer festival.

The light of fireworks is fleeting, so it is necessary to illuminate the model in a short time to realize the normal exposure of the picture.

At the same time, it is difficult to perform with the model, so it is necessary to try to accumulate shooting experience to test the photographer's skill and luck.