Lighting skills of indoor portrait shooting

Lead: The use of light or how to illuminate portrait photography is not only a basic skill, but also an important content that reflects the photographer's level. Let's take a look!

1, main light

The main light is the first choice to determine the lighting mode of the subject, and other lights can only play an auxiliary role. The main light used in modern studios is usually emitted by soft light boxes. The reason why the soft box is used is that the light it emits is more uniform and easy to control. The so-called soft light box is actually to put one or several light bulbs in a box and illuminate the subject through a soft box cover (usually made of plastic or textile) that can scatter light. The bigger the box, the more light bulbs, the stronger the power and the wider the lighting range. For the general photo studio, a soft light box with a diameter of about one square meter can be competent. The distance and angle of illumination can be adjusted as needed, and the exposure is determined according to the main light.

Step 2 fill the lamp

Fill light is also called auxiliary light. As the name implies, its function is to supplement the light of the shadow and make it shallow. In fact, the auxiliary light can be the same soft box as the main light, and its light ratio with the main light can be adjusted by lighting distance or output power. If the exposure of the supplementary light is 3 steps less than that of the main light, the light ratio is 1: 3, which means that the result will get a deeper shadow. If the intensity of the supplementary light is close to the main light, for example, the difference is half an aperture, then the shadow part becomes very shallow. For simplicity, the light source can be fixed on the ceiling or wall, and the depth of the shadow can be controlled only by adjusting the output power. As for how to get the best light ratio between the supplementary light and the main light, we can only try again and again.

3. Background light

In most cases, the subject has a certain distance from the background. Because the illumination of the light source decreases obviously with the increase of distance, the background is farther away from the light source than the main body, so the brightness of the background is much darker than the main body. If exposed according to the lighting conditions of the subject, the background will appear darker, and as a result, the subject looks as if it is integrated into the dark background. If the photographer doesn't mind this background effect, of course, no background light is needed. But if we want to distinguish the subject from the background, we need to illuminate the background separately, so there is the so-called background light. However, the use of background light should take into account the color, distance and illumination angle of the background. If you can't do it well, you will be self-defeating. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the background light repeatedly to use it normally. In order to illuminate the seamless background evenly, it is sometimes necessary to use two lamps. 4. The head glows

Due to the development of portrait photography technology, the so-called headlight has gradually evolved from an unnatural beam of light projected on the head to one or more wider and softer beams, which can not only prevent the hair from turning black, but also outline the main body, so it is also called? Split the lights? . This method of using light has been widely used now, and small soft light boxes or strip lights are used for this purpose. This kind of head lighting can also be realized by reflecting a beam of light from the ceiling, but the light distribution range should be controlled. It won't look good if it shines on your nose.

The above four kinds of lighting are the basic lighting methods for portrait photography. These four methods can be used flexibly according to needs, and they can be used at the same time, or they can only use the main light and reflector. As for portrait photography using natural light in the studio or outdoors, the light sources used are natural light and reflectors on the spot. Of course, you can also use a combination of natural light and lighting.

At this point, perhaps all the methods of using up light have been involved, and these methods can be said to be enough. This is the routine practice of photographers. However, for portrait photography, the portraits taken by the existing lighting methods sometimes seem to be lacking. In short, it's not exciting enough. So, what ingenious methods can solve this delicate problem? Another way is to emphasize light with another kind of light.

Emphasizing the role of light is to add a little bright color and momentum to the portrait, highlight the shape of the subject and enhance the three-dimensional sense, or attract people's attention to the illuminated part that emphasizes light. In the studio, this kind of light is usually a small range of unscattered tough light, which is very aggressive. It can be seen that setting this kind of light does not cost too much, and even other light sources, such as portable flash, can be reflected into the picture with a mirror, which can play an emphasis role. If the flash is used as the light source, it can be placed on the bracket and synchronized with other lighting through the servo switch, that is, the photoelectric starter. The reason why mirrors are used is mainly to control the illumination range that emphasizes light. In order to get the best effect, it is emphasized that light usually comes from the back of the subject and sometimes enters the lens, which destroys the image effect. Therefore, in order to ensure that the lens is not affected by glare, a shading sheet made of black cardboard should be placed between the emphasized light and the lens.

The intensity of light is generally not strictly regulated, because different photographers pursue different effects, but we might as well take the brightness beyond the main light aperture as the starting point for shooting. However, even if the intensity of light is the same as the main light, it will have a vivid effect, because its light quality is tough and its luminous angle makes the light reflect to the lens. By the way, if a flash is used as the light source of accent lighting, all other light sources should be turned off when measuring the intensity of accent lighting.

Emphasizing the use of light can enhance the drama and three-dimensional sense of portraits without much trouble and money. With a little practice, you can master this trick, and as a result, you can get a picture on the next floor.