Photography Notes: A Flash of Light and Shadow—A Guide to Cultivating Warm and Aesthetic Portrait Photography (Unfinished)

Photographers can capture a different side of a person, and even some tiny expressions can be magnified by the lens. In real life, you are who you are, but in photos, you can be artistic, retro, handsome...

And all of this is through the photographer's conception, shooting and post-production To achieve. This also opens up various possibilities for portrait creation. As long as the photographer has enough preparation and skills, he can take beautiful photos at any time and anywhere.

I started as a simple amateur, skipping the theory and foundation of photography. I followed my inner love for photography and my understanding of life, and insisted on using my own perspective to appreciate the beauty and use my own method. Go take photos.

What has supported me from being a hobby to now owning my own independent studio is not strong theory and technology, but my yearning and persistence for love, beauty, and warm and beautiful things. Perhaps because of this, I have developed my own set of shooting ideas.

I will travel thousands of miles to a place to take a beautiful photo, and I will repeatedly design and consider lighting, clothing, and makeup for a look in my mind.

There are two kinds of photography that are most attractive, one is true and the other is beautiful.

Good portrait photography should also be an external expression of the photographer's inner world. Any kind of expression is based on the photographer's feelings about life. No matter what the content is, as long as the audience can feel the photographer's world and use photos to bring the two parties closer, the work will be successful.

As for whether the audience can respond and like your work, I believe that each style will naturally have people who like it.

Photography is just a way of expression. What matters is the content you express, the perspective you use to observe the world, and the way you understand and feel everything happening around you. Photography has changed my life and the way I see the world. It has also allowed me to gradually find my own value and allow me to continue working towards the life goals I want. Therefore, before you pick up the camera, you must first learn to observe, learn to feel, and let your feelings become delicate and rich.

At the same time, photography is also an art of excellence. If you want to obtain the most ideal works, you need to keep improving.

The process of improving the level of photography is actually a process of spiraling upwards in the photographer’s aesthetic level. If you encounter a bottleneck in photography, most of the time it is not your photography skills that hinder your improvement, but your aesthetic level.

So all you need to do at this time is to put down the camera and look at other photographers' works, world-famous paintings, and classic movies, which are all helpful for improving your aesthetics.

From a business perspective, when a customer chooses a photographer, they actually choose not the photographer’s work, but the photographer’s aesthetics. No matter how much you like the photographer's previous works, you can't copy them exactly the same. Therefore, you should choose to trust the photographer’s aesthetics and believe that he or she will create better memories for you.

The real learning of photography lies in expressing the photographer’s aesthetics, and even his outlook on life and world through the way of shooting. For such a process, experience and understanding are more important than learning and memory. The learning process of photography is more about understanding and understanding through practice and perception, and is accumulated over a long period of time.

A good photo starts from a flash of inspiration to the final film, which includes conception, preparation of costumes and props, early communication, venue layout, makeup and styling, and then shooting. After shooting, there is post-production editing, typesetting, publishing, online communication or marketing, etc. Shooting is just one step. What really determines the quality of the work is everything the photographer does before and after pressing the shutter.

The most important thing for an attractive portrait photography is to have emotion and the photographer’s own aesthetics and ideas. This also determines whether your photo has a distinctive style and is different from other similar photos. decisive factor.

Style refers to some unified characteristics expressed externally by a work of art. We can classify a photo into a certain style through its surface information, but what really determines the style is actually the inner part of the work, which is the photographer's unique and distinctive expression of aesthetics.

Aesthetics, simply put, is what you like and what you hate. Whether you prefer portraits with precise exposure, rich details, sharp inner focus and smooth outer focus, or photos with hazy and soft backlighting, looming and intertwined light and shadow, depends on your heart and not others. To find your own style, you must first abandon the herd mentality.

The photos I took as soon as I picked up the camera were life record photos. Beautiful portraits require photographers to do a lot of thinking and self-criticism before taking pictures. What are you photographing, what do you want to express through photos, and how do you express your thoughts? You should have a clear definition in your mind before each photo shoot.

Even if the finished film is different from what was imagined, we should learn to analyze the reasons for this gap. Only after countless times of practice can we feel ourselves.

Think, practice, think again, and the style will gradually become clear in this cyclical process.

Even if you can't use fixed words to describe your style, at least you will know what you want to shoot and why you want to shoot like this before the next shoot.

Regarding photography style, I believe everyone will go through a long period of vaguely defined time to establish it. More than four years have passed since the day I picked up a camera, and I still find it difficult to define myself.

But what I hope is that my style is distinctive enough that people can tell at a glance that it was taken by me.

Some people say that "image comes from the heart." This world is objectively unchanged, but everyone has his or her own worldview. As a photographer, I use my subjective perspective to experience the objective world. What I experience is reflected in my photographic works. At this time, the photo is a reflection of my inner feelings.

① Warm and beautiful

Warm and beautiful, this is the first feeling I hope the entire photo will present. It's easy to understand. The picture style and color tone are warm and delicate, and the photo theme is a beautiful thing that expresses a specific image.

② Quiet and powerful

Quiet here means that the picture does not have a strong visual impact and is simple and low-key. And "powerful" refers to the ability to trigger or make the audience think about things beyond the surface of the photo. It can also be understood as attraction. It is simple but extraordinary, and there is a deeper meaning behind simplicity.

What I hope for is that my photos are not just warm and beautiful on the surface, not just about the appearance of the model, not just about the exquisite and beautiful shape. What I pursue is that the audience will be watching this. When taking a photo, you can feel the photographer's emotions and thoughts. When you see the photo, you will know that it is not a photo that was taken randomly by pressing the shutter button, but a carefully conceived work.

③ Natural and not artificial

Natural and not artificial mainly refers to the state of the main character in the picture. What proportions does the character occupy in the picture, what kind of relationship does it have with other components in the picture, as well as the character's shape, makeup, movements, expressions and what he or she does in the picture, these elements can all be achieved Natural and unpretentious effect.

If you want to move others, you must first move yourself.

As of the time I write this, my photography studio has been established for more than two years. In the past two years, I have also shot many, many guest films. For every customer photo shoot I've done, every process has been from consultation on quotation, to communication and payment of deposit, to pre-fitting, interviews, preparation of flowers and props, to shooting, post-retouching, album layout and production, etc. I did it myself.

I have always believed that these processes are the secret to maintaining my passion for every shoot. Not for anything else, just because I enjoy such a complete process and the touch of experiencing it myself. While I am moved by my own efforts, I also believe that the audience can feel all my hard work through the photos and be moved by my intentions.

Characters are the soul of portrait photography, and the photographer is the shaper of the soul. You have to remember that when taking portraits, what you take is not just the state of the person in front of you at that time, but also his or her past, every book he or she has read, and everything he or she has walked through. Every place, every person I have loved, these pasts may seem unrelated, but they have left some kind of imprint on him or her, deeply or shallowly, a small expression, a habitual movement, a certain A song that only needs the intro to put a tender look in his or her eyes.

Many newcomers will very carefully organize the information and send it to me. After reading their stories, I can often get some good shooting inspiration.

But we say that we need to understand the subject and shoot according to the characteristics of the subject. This does not mean that we must blindly follow the preferences of the model or client. The photographer should still be in a dominant position during the entire shooting process. , providing clear guidance on the emotional actions of models or clients.

For example, before you start shooting, tell your subjects the feeling we want to capture in this group of photos, how the clothing and styling will match, and whether the movements should be more exaggerated or elegant and restrained. etc. Movement adjustments during filming also require the use of clear and easy-to-understand language.

I believe that every girl who comes to me to take wedding photos or photos should love herself very much and have high requirements for beauty. So I tried to put aside the identity and thinking mode of a photographer, and simply looked at the tender and beautiful side of women from the perspective of a girl who loves herself, such as some small movements, some fleeting eyes, and some cute little things. detail.

The emotions in the photos are, on the one hand, reflected in the model’s expression and movements, and on the other hand, they are also reflected in the emotions between the photographer and the model. This emotion is based on mutual appreciation and trust.

When I first started taking portraits, if time allowed, I would usually write a shooting script before shooting, including the specific scene, required clothing and accessories, shooting ideas and techniques, and would also prepare a script for the model. Design movement and mood, find lots of sample footage, and even do some sketches of the shoot.

This job is just to help you clarify your thoughts and ensure that the preparations before shooting can be carried out in an orderly manner, but once the actual shooting begins, I will throw the script aside and let myself play. True artistic creation is always subjective and emotional, and this is what makes it fascinating.

Details determine success or failure, and this sentence also applies to photography. Photographers need to learn to think from a macro perspective and start from a micro perspective to conceive and prepare for shooting, such as whether small headgear, small props, clothing fit well, whether the makeup is clean, no false eyelashes or heavy makeup, bright nail colors, etc. Even if you decide to use flowers as props, you should also pay attention to whether the variety of flowers matches the theme of the photo.

Every client who comes to me to take wedding photos should know very well that before the photo shoot, we will spend half a day choosing the clothing style and agreeing on the details of the photo shoot. Whether the collar, waistline, and pattern of the wedding dress are appropriate, I will consider them one by one for the bride to find the most suitable dress. These details will give the photo a carefully designed and just right visual effect.

You can try to increase the artistic sense from the perspective of light and shadow composition, or you can start from the clothing, hairstyle matching, scene selection and prop selection when conceiving and preparing a group of photos.

Real and natural artistic effects are often not so easy to achieve. If you are not careful, it may become artificial with excessive force.

So when it comes to adding an artistic touch to photos, we have to go back to the issue of cultivating and improving aesthetics we mentioned before. Photographers can try to think backwards and focus on what elements you want to exclude rather than what elements you want to include in the photo.

When conditions permit, I will give priority to using fixed focus lenses. When shooting with fixed focus, the photographer has to move back and forth according to the desired composition, and sometimes needs to move with the model.

Constantly moving, changing positions, and thinking about composition. Although the shooting speed is relatively slow, it also gives me more time and more opportunities to discover different lights and angles. Moving the camera also I often make my subjects feel my participation and more actively cooperate with my shooting ideas.

One beautiful photo is far more attractive than ten ordinary photos. Sometimes it takes us a long time to get into the shooting state and find the most suitable light and the most perfect angle. Sometimes, however, taking a great photo is just a moment of inspiration and discovery.

In the face of beauty, I will not begrudge the shutter to capture the moment I want most, but I also hope to slow down and think, so that every time I press the shutter, I will get more than the previous one. Ideal light and composition.

Learning and imitation is a very important stage in the process of improving a photographer's skills.

Here the author lists the steps she takes to observe and think when reading works.

① Observe color matching and composition.

② Observe the model’s clothing style or makeup, as well as the character’s posture and emotions. These are information on the surface of the photo and can be directly obtained for direct reference.

③ Analyze focal length and angle of view.

For example, telephoto, 85mm or 135mm, or 70-200mm. A common method is to observe the degree of deformation around the photo, the degree of background compression and blur, so that you can basically confirm the focal length and camera position. This step can help you choose the focal length to use in future shooting.

④ Analyze light sources, fill light methods, etc.

Of course, many good works with fill light make it difficult to detect the traces of fill light, but there are still some details where you can see the photographer's thoughts on using light. By looking at the angle and position of the shadow on the ground, you can see the direction of the light source and thus understand the light position the photographer used in this photo.

When you first pick up a camera, you have already begun to observe and understand the world from a photographer's perspective. Every photo you take is a step forward on your photography journey.

Photography is a comprehensive subject. The comprehensive effects of scenery, people, equipment, post-production, etc. are the same result. Simply improving one of them cannot improve the overall level. Therefore, photographers need to be calm. Mentality needs to learn to accumulate and settle over a long period of time.

Photography is an art of creation and recording, but if you want to become a professional photographer, photography will also become a commercial activity. It is not enough to just be able to take good photos, you also need to deal with it every day Lots of messages, phone calls, inquiries.

① You need to learn to communicate with different customers and businesses.

② You need to know how to find your position in the market.

③ The task needs to be completed as well as possible within a limited time.

④ You need to maintain your passion and love for photography.

⑤ Maintain the best condition and endless creativity.

Photography is like many professions. If you want to succeed, the most important thing is persistence and perseverance.

Maybe your efforts will not bear fruit immediately, but you must always remember that all your silent efforts now will eventually transform into the strongest cry one day in the future.

I often list the topics I want to shoot in the near future in a notebook, and then plan, prepare, and shoot in order.

I will also set some long-term goals for myself. For example, two years ago I set myself the goal of publishing a photography book.

Write down these goals and put them in front of the computer or on your desk. This can effectively improve execution. Good execution ability drives me forward on this road and gradually approaches the goal.

Many photographers should have experienced that if you shoot a professional model, the photo you take of him or her is just one of the thousands of photos of him or her. But if you are taking pictures of ordinary people, then these photos are probably one of the most beautiful moments in their lives. This is very important to me and to my clients. I have always kept this in mind, and I deeply understand the significance of taking photos of clients.

I like to spend a few minutes carefully observing my guests after they put on their makeup and wedding dresses. I often find that this girl’s eyes or certain facial features are so beautiful. If I hadn’t taken photos of her, , may never discover her beauty, what a pity that would be.

Photography is my means of making a living, but I also hope that I can live my life the way I like and maintain the rhythm and passion of shooting. I think as long as I still have the energy, I will keep taking pictures. Taking pictures of ordinary people is one of the greatest joys of being a photographer.

Powerful equipment can often enhance photos, but it is not the decisive factor. Find a camera that works well and a lens that fits. What really determines the quality of photos is never the equipment, but the mind.

What photographers need to do is to control the equipment, rather than letting the characteristics of the equipment limit their own shooting ideas and level.

Small wide angle, f/1.4 large aperture, a fresh portrait tool; especially when the space is not large enough, 35mm can take into account the environment.

Compared with 50mm and 85mm, 35mm focuses relatively quickly and is suitable for capturing dynamic scenes. The 35mm focal length is a good choice for children's photography and outdoor shooting.

When traveling, 35mm is suitable for photographing people and scenery, which can reduce the burden. Due to its small wide angle, 35mm is easily deformed when shooting close-ups or placing people on the edge of the composition, so this should be avoided as much as possible.

The 50mm lens has a viewing angle close to that of the human eye. It does not have the visual impact of wide-angle or telephoto. It is the easiest focal length to control and control, and it is easy to convey warm and beautiful feelings through photos.

The mid-telephoto Canon 85mm lens is known as the king of big eye/portrait lenses. The large aperture of f/1.2 achieves a smooth out-of-focus texture.

85mm is suitable for shooting close-ups of small scenes. It can focus on the human eyes while other facial features are blurred, thus amplifying the emotions conveyed by the characters’ eyes.

Mid-telephoto shooting can also avoid underexposure of faces when backlighting or side backlighting, and the sense of transparency will be stronger than at wide angle.

The disadvantage of the 85mm focal length is that the angle of view is single and the composition changes little, which further tests the photographer's off-screen skills such as early planning, post-production color correction and ability to guide the model's emotions.

The 85mm lens can easily make people look fatter than they actually are. You can use the liquefaction function appropriately in post-production to lose weight.

The 24-70mm is a very practical lens. The wide angle at the 24mm end and the medium telephoto end at the 70mm end, plus the aperture of f/2.8, can meet the shooting needs under many conditions. When time is tight, choosing 24-70mm will save more time than fixed focus.

In photography, composition also means the same thing. Learning to compose is like learning a language. You don’t have to memorize the grammar, but once you master it, it allows you to clearly express what you want to say.

A harmonious and exquisite composition is the basis for determining the entire painting.

Composition can be said to be equivalent to a skeleton for a photo. The composition of a beautiful portrait does not need to be too precise, but it must make people feel balanced and comfortable. The balance mentioned here is a kind of visual balance.

The nine-square grid composition refers to placing people and objects on vertical or vertical thirds, or at intersections.

This kind of composition brings a balanced and comfortable visual effect, and can also avoid the monotonous feeling caused by symmetrical composition.

In close-ups of people, you can choose the human eye as the subject. When composing the picture, place the human eye that is closer to the camera at the intersection point, and place the hands or other props at another intersection point to make the subject The composition is balanced and comfortable without being monotonous.

Diagonal composition refers to drawing two diagonal lines in the picture, and the main body of the picture extends roughly along one of the lines.

This method is also suitable for guiding the model's movements, such as the extension of hands or feet.

This composition method can be used especially when shooting lying down or overhead shots.

The subjects extending along the diagonal are not just people. When shooting, you can also use the lines of clothes or other props to create the visual effect of a diagonal composition.

Triangle is the most stable shape, and triangle composition is often used in landscape photography.

Using triangle composition in portrait photography will also bring stability and harmony to the picture.

Triangular composition is often used when photographing people sitting. The head, hands, feet (or knees, buttocks) are distributed in a triangle, which can make the posture more natural.

Concentrating the subject of the picture in a triangular area is also a method of using triangular composition.

The single eye center method is to use one eye of the subject as the focus of the picture when composing the picture, so that the audience's sight is attracted to the eye in the photo, and other parts can be ignored lightly.

This method is especially suitable when shooting close-ups. In photos, the eyes play a guiding role and guide the audience's gaze, so when the characters in the photo look into the distance, it will give the entire picture a sense of extension.

The single-eye center method can be combined with the nine-square grid composition method mentioned earlier, placing the human eye at the intersection of the nine-square grid.

When shooting, the subject is cropped and part of the subject extends outside the frame. This composition is often called a bleed composition.

Such a composition helps to guide the audience's sight and highlight the character's eyebrows, eyelashes, eye light, subtle expressions, and some small movements and details.

In close-up close-up shooting, small flaws in the skin and makeup are pulled into the lens, which is a test for the model's condition and expressiveness, as well as the photographer's composition ability and post-production skills.

When we take portraits, people are the focus. But if your work appears as a group picture, this gives us more room to play with the scene. In addition to close-ups, close-ups, medium shots, panoramas, and long shots centered on the characters, there can also be partial, and accounting for the environment.

The combination of various scenes in the group photo can make the photos more rhythmic and story-telling.

In movies, directors use complex and changeable scene scheduling and lens scheduling, and alternately use various scenes to make the narrative of the film's plot, the expression of the characters' thoughts and feelings, and the handling of the characters' relationships more vivid. It is expressive and enhances the artistic appeal of the film.

There is a saying in ancient Chinese paintings: "Get the spirit from a distance, and get the power from a distance." Therefore, the closer the close-up is, the more prominent the character's expression will be. The photo will be less affected by the surrounding environmental factors. The light, shadow, color and composition will be simpler. The close-up focuses on the face, or even part of it.

When the shooting environment is open and the scenery is beautiful, you can try to reduce the proportion of the characters in the picture and emphasize the atmosphere of the environment where the people are.

A group of portrait works that alternately use various scenes. I call it "Environmental Portrait Group". The relationship between characters and the environment, and the proportion of characters in the picture, also directly affect the feelings conveyed by the photos.

There is a very interesting phenomenon. The human eye cannot distinguish whether the facial features of an inverted figure are in line with the proportion of beauty.

When we see an inverted photo of a person, the facial features and expressions will be ignored by us. Even if the person in the photo has unrefined facial features and unnatural expressions, they will be ignored.

When shooting close-ups with an overhead view, the blur of a large aperture can allow the audience to focus on the human eyes and blur parts other than the face. It is suitable for shooting the moment when the model looks directly into the camera, and the eyes and expressions are highlighted. Zoom in, and the red lips are also a highlight in the picture.

The upward view composition means that the camera position is lower than the model’s eye level. This allows the model to stand higher, or the photographer to squat down.

When shooting upward-looking compositions, it is best not for the model to look directly into the camera. This may cause the face to look unattractive or the neck to not stretch enough. At this time, ask the model to give the camera a "profile" or "look into the distance" to bring an extension or visual guidance to the composition. It can also make the model's limbs look more slender and stretched.

Partial close-ups can convey emotions and enhance the atmosphere very well in portrait photography. It can also be called "close-up composition with no eyes exposed".

In addition to the girl’s beautiful eyes and face, you can also take pictures of fingertips, collarbones, hair, lips, back, etc. There are no eyes to convey emotions, and the emotion conveyed in partial close-ups relies more on body language.

Capturing the soft light and some small movements of the girl, or using small props and trinkets, you can take beautiful partial close-ups. These local details often bring the viewer into the artistic conception of the photo more easily.

Even if you only shoot a part, this part still belongs to the character as a whole, so don’t treat it separately. For example, to make your hands look good, your entire body should be comfortable and relaxed, and your expression should be soft.

Under the blur effect of a lens with a large aperture and shallow depth of field, many unexpected things will produce beautiful foregrounds.

Prospects can be divided into large prospects and small prospects according to size. Large prospects, such as floors, platforms, large areas of glass, etc.

Small prospects, such as props, flowers, clothes, etc.

Prospects can also be divided into environmental prospects and artificial prospects according to their sources. When there is no object suitable as the foreground in the scene, you can artificially add the foreground, such as white gauze, transparent plastic paper, feathers, LED lights, etc.

Composition is a short action completed by the photographer at the moment of pressing the shutter. At the moment when you press the shutter, you may not have enough time to think about the composition method, but long-term accumulation and shooting experience will make the composition method settle in your mind and become a subconscious action.

I have a hobby of collecting antique clothes and hats. Each antique piece had its brilliance on a girl many years ago. Those exquisite embroideries and beads, and the slightly yellowed traces of time, sometimes without any explanation, can seem to see its charm at a glance. Every detail seems to silently tell a moving story.

I love this sense of mysterious stories, and these collections often become the source of my creative inspiration. When thoughts and inspiration are spread out from a delicate Victorian shirt, a group of beautiful portraits can be created.

This love affair with photography started from the moment I picked up the camera and took pictures more than four years ago, and maybe it will continue like this throughout my life.

This book about photography is more about sharing my thoughts and feelings. It may make you fall in love with photography firmly, but it can also make you feel the long and heavy journey of photography. . To me, it seems like a solemn assignment, handed over to my friends who have been paying attention to and supporting me, and also handed over to myself who has been moving forward firmly on this road for more than four years.

I firmly believe that there is an endless story behind every photo. They are the books I have read, the roads I have traveled, and the people I have loved. They are either deep or shallow in my memory. The traces left behind make up the ordinary but unique me I am now. I hope this book will also leave traces in your memory, become your past, and become the story behind your photos.