What skills should portrait photography master?

What skills should portrait photography master?

What skills should portrait photography master? It takes a lot of practice and perseverance to take a good portrait. You may make some mistakes when shooting portraits, which makes you run counter to perfect portrait photography. Let's take you to know what skills you need to master in portrait photography.

What skills should portrait photography master? 1 1. The subject's eyes are out of focus.

As the saying goes, "the eyes are the windows to the soul". Eyes are undoubtedly a person's soul, and if you want to shoot such a portrait with a soul, you must first ensure that the "window of the soul" is clear and sharp. When shooting portraits, it is recommended to focus on the human eye. Novices who use the entry machine can choose the central focus, focusing first and then composing. If the focus is not accurate, you can try to focus manually to solve the problem. In addition, when focusing manually, if the camera has a live view function, it can be used together to increase the success rate of manual focusing.

Eyes are the focus of portrait creation, which is very important for both the subject and the photographer!

2. Red eye phenomenon

Nowadays, many cameras have red-eye prevention function, so you can flash the light in advance when shooting, which can narrow the pupil of the subject in advance and slow down the red-eye phenomenon. When you need to use the built-in flash, you can also let the subject look at the light source for 2 seconds before shooting, so that the pupil can shrink before shooting. If the external flash can adjust the angle, it can also fill the light by flashing. In addition, using off-camera flash to keep it away from the camera lens can also reduce the possibility of red eye. Red-eye phenomenon can also be corrected later.

3, wide-angle portrait deformation

Although it is often said that the best focal length of portrait shooting is about 75- 105mm, different effects can be obtained by using wide-angle lens to create. As far as the APS-C frame fuselage commonly used by novice friends is concerned, the wide-angle focal length mostly falls within the range of 24-28mm, which is not only the starting focal length for learning landscape composition, but also the starting point for practicing wide-angle portrait shooting. When shooting people with wide-angle lens, we should pay attention to the characteristics of portrait creation in each focal segment. For example, 24-28mm is suitable for the creation of characters and scenes. If we can grasp the angle and composition, we can fully present the perspective of the scene and make the picture more tense. If you don't pay attention to the wide-angle shooting characteristics, you may also shoot a terrible image because of the deformation of the wide-angle lens.

4. The theme is not clear.

When shooting portraits, we should pay attention to properly highlighting the main body of the characters, otherwise it will easily lead to confusion in the picture, and people will not know whether the focus of this picture is people, flowers behind them or cars next to them. To overcome this problem, we should not only start with composition, but also create a shallow depth of field to highlight the main body. When you feel that the subject should blend into the background, ask him to "get out of the background" close to the camera, or use a large aperture to create a shallow depth of field effect and blur the background to make the subject clearer.

Proper manufacture of shallow depth of field can emphasize the effect of shooting subject.

5, unnatural light and shadow

Proper light and shadow presentation and portrait creation can create different styles of atmosphere, but if it is not used well, it will also ruin the work. Generally speaking, for beginners, soft light is easier to shoot, such as scattered light on cloudy days, which will not leave too hard light and shadow on the subject's face, while the sunshine at noon on sunny days is too strong, which is easy to cause the contrast between light and shade on the subject's face. It can be used with the soft light board to slow down some overexposure and underexposure. If you use a flash to shoot indoors, you can also use it with a soft mask to soften the light.

Five things to grasp in portrait photography

1, immediate

Capture the decisive moment of a character's expression or action. A decisive moment does not mean an accident. You can expect it to appear under certain conditions, and then you get everything else ready and press the shutter at the same time as it causes it to appear.

2. Eyes

Eye contact is an indispensable part of portrait photography. Eyes play a certain role in communication with the audience, and eye light is a more subtle detail.

It is ideal to capture people's eyes through the other end of the lens. If you shoot a scene with a focal length of 50mm, it may increase the visual sense.

Step 3 color

The atmosphere conveyed by a photo will be influenced by color. If you want to take photos of happy atmosphere, bright, colorful and warm colors will be more direct and effective than low saturation, monotony and cool colors.

When you plan what colors should appear in the picture, you should avoid or even eliminate all color objects that cause interference and redundancy when you go to the shooting scene.

This is why some photos look textured, while others look a bit vulgar. If you want others to start praising your photos, it is a direct and effective choice to start with understanding colors.

4. light

The same place, the same person, you can shoot in the backlight, or you can shoot in the backlight, but it feels completely different.

I prefer shooting against the light. On the one hand, it can modify the details of people's skin, on the other hand, the picture will have an "extra layer" between people and photos because of the brilliance of the lens. Some people describe this as "air sense".

There is nothing wrong with shooting along the light. Using it well can increase the three-dimensional sense of the picture. But it should be noted that if the light hits the face close to the camera, it will make people look fat. If you want to modify your face, you should pay special attention to changing the subject's angle.

5. Scenery

Many times, there is no need to pose as a model. After all, our purpose is to shoot the characters themselves, not to emphasize a certain commodity. If you don't want to show a product, you can actually focus more on the theme.

If you spend two or three hours shooting a person, but you don't know anything about the other person after shooting, it is difficult to dig deep into the charm of this person in the photo.

What skills should portrait photography master? 2 1, highlighting the upward angle of the characters.

When shooting portraits from the perspective of looking up, we can highlight the curves of women's legs and make women's bodies slimmer and more beautiful. For women with short legs, photographers can choose to look up to make up for the lack of models themselves. When shooting, the photographer should pay attention to the background of the model to avoid clutter. The background of looking up is mostly the sky, and the blue sky can highlight the main body of the picture well.

2. Natural and true head-up angle

Head-up shooting means that the camera and the subject are on the same level, and the head-up angle reduces the photographer's subjective consciousness, which is more objective, closer to life and more intimate and natural. When taking pictures, the photographer should grasp the line of sight of the subject and take the eyes of the subject as the center, whether standing, squatting or lying down, so that the shooting effect will be more real and natural.

3. Increase the interesting overlooking angle

Overlooking shooting refers to shooting from top to bottom with a camera. Top-down shooting angle is not common, but in some cases, the reasonable use of overhead shooting often produces different effects from the usual perspective. Changing the conventional shooting method can add another kind of interest to ordinary portrait works.

When shooting a portrait in a prone position, you can choose to shoot from above. Choosing the right composition is the key to shooting from the top. Generally speaking, you can choose diagonal composition, or use some props as a foil to enrich the picture and achieve balance.

4. Highlight the close-ups of people's expressions

Close-up portraits, similar to headshots, are common forms of framing and composition in portrait photography. When shooting close-ups, the model's face occupies a large proportion in the picture, which can clearly show the model's facial features and expressions. There is no doubt that they will be visible in the photos. Therefore, before shooting, photographers need to carefully observe the five senses of the model, so as to choose the best shooting angle, foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, and show the most beautiful and natural expression of the model.

5. Close-up portraits, with gestures and expressions.

Close-up portraits generally choose figures above the waist, also called bust. The figure usually matches the hand movements and upper body posture of the character. When shooting, the hand movements of the characters should be naturally coordinated to increase the sense of facial lines, make the picture richer and avoid dullness. Close-up portraits should not only show the posture of the characters, but also consider the facial expressions of the characters, so the expressions of the models should be relaxed naturally when shooting.

6. Panoramic portrait combined with environmental scene

When shooting a panoramic portrait, the characters will be completely immersed in the picture, and there are a lot of environmental elements, which will enrich the content of the photo. Generally speaking, in this way of composition, wedding photography based on scenery and portraits is widely used. When shooting a panoramic portrait, the shape and posture of the subject, the choice and layout of the background are all important factors that determine the success of the photo, so the photographer needs to have a strong grasp of the whole. As a beginner, you need to practice and learn excellent works.

7. Reserve space in the direction of sight.

When shooting portraits, especially profile portraits, we should pay attention to a problem, that is, we should reserve a certain space within the line of sight of the characters, which will make the photos full of space and give the audience a broader imagination space, otherwise it will give people a feeling of crowding and depression.

What skills should portrait photography master? 3 1. Adapt to the available light.

When shooting portraits, light is one of the most important elements to remember, especially how light shines on the surface of the object. Proper lighting or lack of proper lighting may cause or destroy the image. Adjust it so that the photographer turns his head to the main light source, whether it is a street lamp or the sun. If this person is looking at the sun, it is recommended to look in a direction that will not make them squint or feel uncomfortable.

Although prime time is the best time for portrait photography, you may not always have the luxury of perfect lighting because of the whimsy of nature. In this case, you need to adapt to the available. The light makes full use of the opportunity of portrait.

Remember, the light is bad. However, if you know what to do, then these can be used as advantages. Here are some basic techniques for different natural lighting scenes:

Strong sunlight-put the subject in the shadow to ensure that his face is evenly illuminated.

Prime time-let the person being photographed look at the sun to make his face shine beautifully, or let the sun stay behind to make the areola shine.

Cloudy days-you can take pictures almost anywhere, because clouds naturally scatter sunlight and provide uniform illumination for your face.

Night/low light-looking for street lamps or other light sources can provide good lighting for the subject's face.

Step 2 guide your topic

Facing the reality, most people will feel uncomfortable in front of the camera. By correctly guiding the people who are photographed, they can be helped to relax. If you don't know any posture, then focus on one thing and improve every time you shoot. Maybe let that person lift his chin and make their faces look more attractive.

3. Find a clean background that contrasts sharply with the theme.

Background is very important for shaping beautiful characters. The main function of background is to provide and highlight the environment in which people live, and it is very important to find a clean background that contrasts with the main body.

Precautions:

Depending on the position in the photo, branches, telephone poles and other objects may appear to emanate from the head of the subject. Try cropping the image so that the subject's head is not disturbed.

Try to find a color or shadow that complements or contrasts with the subject's skin color or clothes.

Step 4 focus on the dominant eye

This is especially important if shooting in shallow depth of field, and make sure to focus on the eyes closer to the lens. If the dominant eye is out of focus, the photo will look a little unnatural and may even ruin a good portrait.

5. The lines must be straight.

Oblique aiming can make people look weird, so please make sure to keep aiming straight. The same applies to environmental elements, such as the outline of doors or buildings. If these lines are not straight, the portrait will look less attractive. Of course, important lines can be aligned in post-processing, but this will lead to cropping, thus destroying the balance of the picture.

6. Carefully cut out the arms and legs of the picture.

Sometimes you don't want to film a person's whole body. Maybe I'm taking bigger pictures, just the chest and head. In this case, some parts of the body will be cut off, so be very careful when trimming around your arms or legs.

Pruning skills:

Don't trim body parts at joints: Trimming elbows, knees or wrists may leave a missing impression. Try to trim half between the joints. For example, if you want to cut your arm, cut it between your wrist and elbow, or between your elbow and shoulder.

If the subject's arms/legs are in the picture, please make sure the whole action: don't accidentally "cut" your fingers or toes at the edge of the image, which will ruin your portrait.

7. Pay attention to the edge of the picture

If you are shooting portraits outdoors, please remove the extra background from the corner of the frame, or at least make sure that it is out of focus and blends in with the background.

When you photograph people, it's easy to completely focus on them without looking at their surroundings. However, elements scattered on the edge of the picture will destroy the picture. Before pressing the shutter button, please try to crop correctly and pay attention to the edges.

8. Shoot something interesting with props.

If you really want to raise portrait photography to a new level, then it is important to get out of the mindset and be creative. Many people look dull, and these are just photos that are correctly exposed.

In order to make people lifelike, please try to use interesting props or environmental elements, be creative and start to master portrait photography.