Application of Light in Portrait Photography

When shooting portraits, whether outdoor light or indoor spotlight is used for shooting, natural light is used for lighting, and photographers need to control and adjust the light according to the shooting theme. Let me give you a brief understanding of the use of light in portrait photography.

Basic light application of portrait photography

Photography is inseparable from light. According to the angle of light, the basic common lighting types can be divided into four types: 1) front light, 2) side light, 3) front light, 4) back light, 5) side back light and 6) ground light.

Photography is inseparable from light. It is not suitable for photography under the condition of spotlight. Especially indoors, it is often difficult to shoot because of insufficient brightness or too high contrast. So we use lighting to decorate the overall picture effect, so as to achieve the ideal shooting effect. Depending on the orientation of the camera and the light source, the light falls on different parts of the subject, which will produce different effects. According to the angle of light, the basic common light types can be divided into four types: 1) front light, 2) side light, 3) front light, 4) backlight, 5) side backlight and 6) ground light. In addition, the intensity of light can be divided into strong light and soft or scattered light.

1, Guang Shun, also known as? Flat light?

Because the light shines on the object from the front, it produces a two-dimensional sense of plane, so it is usually called flat light. Using the flat light shooting method, the light shines in front of the character, so that the whole character is evenly illuminated, and the overall level and texture of the facial features, hair and clothes of the character can be clearly seen. However, because the plane light shines directly on the face of the character from the front, the overall facial features of the character will become flat and lose the original three-dimensional sense. Generally suitable for people with normal facial features, a family of three with five eyes, fat people or people who are too thin.

2. Indirect explanation

The direction of light projection is about 90 degrees from the shooting direction. Objects illuminated by side light have obvious dark edges and projections, which will make the whole picture of the subject more stereoscopic and clearer. However, due to different angles, different light receiving areas on the face and different shadow parts, it often forms a semi-bright and semi-dark tone, which often forms uneven light reception in large scenes, so it is generally only suitable for taking pictures and avoiding taking wedding photos.

3. Estimated quantity

The light source projected on the subject at an angle of 45 degrees with the optical axis of the lens is called forward metering, which illuminates 70% of the subject's face and forms a certain shadow. The light casts a little shadow, which is generally suitable for fatter people.

4, backlight, also known as? Silhouette light?

The light from the back of the subject can only illuminate the outline of the subject, so it is also called side light. The dark background is usually used when shooting, and the light effect can't highlight the effect. Under the backlight condition, most subjects are in the shadow, and only the outline of the subjects is illuminated, thus separating the characters from the background, highlighting the theme and enhancing the three-dimensional sense and sense of space.

5, side backlight, also known as? Reverse side light, back side light?

Lighting when the light projection direction is about 135 degrees horizontal to the camera shooting direction. Most of the side backlight is in the shadow, and the illuminated side of the subject is often brighter, which can better express the outline and three-dimensional sense of the scene. This kind of lighting can better show the perspective effect of the atmosphere in location photography. During shooting, auxiliary lights must be used for lighting, otherwise the shadow surface will appear thick and suitable for low-key shooting.

6. Ground light, also known as? Ghost light?

This light forms a projection from bottom to top, resulting in an abnormal shape. It is often used as a modeling method to depict special characters, special emotions and render special atmosphere. Due to the illumination of the earth's light, the overall shape of the characters will be extremely strange, forming similar shapes? Ghosts? The influence of, so it is also called? Ghost light? . This kind of light is often used as effect light in studio shooting.

Portrait Photography: Understanding and Application of Main Light

When shooting portraits, whether outdoor light or indoor spotlight is used for shooting, natural light is used for lighting, and photographers need to control and adjust the light according to the shooting theme. Shooting in the studio is different. Each beam of light is shaped by your own lamp, and finally you achieve the effect you want to express. When shooting portraits in the studio, it is generally necessary to use more than two lights, and sometimes four, five or even more lights are needed. These lights must be arranged and controlled by themselves. If you don't know some methods, you can't use them flexibly. Someone said:? The more lights, the more messy it is, and the less lights you use, the better? This statement is not comprehensive. Whether the lighting effect is chaotic does not depend on the number of lights, but on whether the lighting distribution is appropriate and reasonable, and whether the lighting effect and lighting directivity are unified. In the process of shooting, the components of each light used have different effects on the shaping of the subject, which can be generally divided into five categories.

calorescence

In the light distribution scheme of portrait photography, the main light is the main light that illuminates and shapes the body, which has clear directionality and its light level depends on the light effect to be achieved. After the shooting angle is selected, what kind of light and shade modeling effect the subject has is mainly formed by the main light. The bright surface of the main body is illuminated by the main light (as shown in Figure 3-28 and Figure 3-29). Changes in the left and right directions, high and low angles and even the distance of the main light will immediately change the light and shade effect of the subject. Photographers should first choose the position of the main light when lighting, so that its lighting direction, light level and beam area are most conducive to modeling, and then configure other lights as needed. Other lights should be subordinate to the modeling effect of the main light to maintain the integrity and unity of the lighting effect. 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 distance and angle of illumination can be adjusted as needed, and the exposure is determined according to the main light. When shooting in a large range indoors, if a main light lamp can't meet the performance requirements, several lights can be used side by side to illuminate from the same direction, and * * * can be used as the main light.

Auxiliary light lamp

The auxiliary main light is called auxiliary light, which is called auxiliary light for short. Its function is to supplement the light of the shadow and make it shallow. In fact, the auxiliary light can use the same soft light box as the main light, and its light ratio with the main light can be adjusted by illumination distance or output power.

In portrait photography, although the main light lamp plays an important role, the part of the subject that is not illuminated often has a deep shadow and the dark side lacks details. Therefore, it is difficult to complete the modeling task with only the main light, as shown in Figure 3-30. The purpose of using auxiliary light is to improve the brightness of the dark side of the subject and control the brightness of the light and dark side. Light ratio? . The brighter the auxiliary light, the smaller the light ratio; The darker the auxiliary light, the greater the light ratio.

The auxiliary light should be scattered light, and the light quality should be soft to play the role of uniform lighting. The auxiliary light should not exceed or equal to the brightness of the main light, but it should be darker than the main light, so as not to damage the light efficiency of the main light, and the area of lamps and lanterns as auxiliary light should be appropriately larger. The auxiliary lamp can use one lamp or two lamps. Generally speaking, when there is only one lamp as an auxiliary lamp, the position of the lamp should be close to the camera, and the auxiliary lighting should be carried out from the front as far as possible. In this way, on the one hand, the auxiliary light received by the subject is relatively uniform, and on the other hand, it can effectively prevent disorderly projection. If the auxiliary light shines from the dark side, it will inevitably lead to a second projection that contradicts the direction of the main light, which is neither real nor beautiful.

The most ideal method is to use two lamps as auxiliary lamps. One is close to the camera, and the other can be at 90? ~ 120? The orientation of the shadow surface causes a weak reflection, which makes the dark surface gradually transition from front to back and from near to far, which is helpful to express the three-dimensional sense and detail level of the shadow surface of the subject. ? Second auxiliary light? The brightness should be properly controlled, based on slightly improving the brightness of the dark side and showing the detail level of the shadow side, not too bright, so as not to destroy the unity and harmony of the overall tone effect.

contour light

The light that does not illuminate the front of the subject, but produces bright lines along the contour line of the edge of the subject is side light. Side light is generally around 150? Want to approach 180? To the body in the opposite direction. When shooting a portrait, you can form a bright outline on the hair, face circumference and shoulders of the subject, and form an expressive light effect, as shown in Figure 3-3 1.

Side light has three main functions:

1. Represents the contour features of an object.

2. Form bright lines in the outline to distinguish the subject from the background.

3. Form a specific lighting effect to enhance the artistic appeal of photos.

Use side light, the brightness should be appropriate, so as to form a bright outline without losing the level of detail. Spotlights should be used for side light.

bias light

The light that illuminates the background is called background light. Background light only illuminates the background, not the subject, so as not to destroy the light effect of the subject. Generally speaking, a special lamp should be used to illuminate the background alone. The function of background light is to adjust the brightness of the background, make the subject in front of the background stand out, and increase the sense of spatial depth of the photo. Sometimes, light is used to form a certain spot on the background to enhance artistic expression. Background light can be varied: bright background, dark background, medium background, bright and dark background and background with special lighting effects. Bright background should be illuminated by scattered light; Spotlight should illuminate the background with spot change. The power of the backlight depends on the need. When using background light, we should pay attention to the difference and contrast with the tone of the subject, which is conducive to expressing the image of the subject, but does not cover up the image of the subject. In most cases, the subject should keep 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 illumination of the subject, the background will appear darker, and as a result, the subject will feel integrated into the dark background and have no sense of space. Unless you want to show special effects. The use of background light should also take into account the color, distance and illumination angle of the background. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the background light repeatedly to use it normally.

1. Function of background light

A. Background light is the light that can improve the background brightness, purify the background, increase the background level and make the background rich in changes.

B. Background light plays a role in setting off the artistic atmosphere of photos.

2. Generally, there are the following methods to deal with the background light:

A. Set off the bright part of the subject with a dark background.

B. Set off the dark part of the subject with a bright background.

C. Use a halftone background to contrast the bright and dark parts of the subject.

D, comparing the dark part and bright part of the subject with the bright background and dark background respectively.

E. Render a special atmosphere with light spots on the background.

3. Types and applications of common background lights

A. Parallel background light: put a light on the left and right of the back of the picture to illuminate the background, so that the background will produce a bright and uniform lighting effect. This kind of lighting is suitable for taking bright photos. The use method is that the background light shines on the background behind the figure at a 45-degree angle, and the farther away from the background, the more uniform the light is. The height of the lamp is close to the head position of the person, as shown in Figure 3-32.

B. Central background light: The lighting method is to put a light behind the figure and shoot against the background. The light diffuses from the center to all directions, which has a shining effect, and the main characters are highlighted by the background light. It can highlight the theme and express the three-dimensional sense. The lamp is placed in the middle behind the main body. If it is inconvenient to put the background light behind the figure, you can add a beehive to the light and shoot the background from the side, as shown in Figure 3-33.

C transmission of background light: a special light effect produced by placing a light source behind the background cloth or artificial background and transmitting light from behind the background. Make the picture have a vague sense of space. Different background materials have different thicknesses and different light blocking rates. Therefore, it is necessary to appropriately increase the intensity or exposure of light, as shown in Figure 3-34.

Auxiliary lamp

If a certain part of the subject is dark, it is necessary to add some illumination light to make up the light, and besides the above light, a lamp should be used for local illumination. This kind of light used for local lighting is called decorative light. When shooting a portrait, if the light on the face of the subject is suitable, but the light on the clothes or hands is still dim, you can use another light with lower power to partially illuminate the clothes or hands, so that the color tone can meet the ideal requirements. Cold light and eyes are also called decorative lights, as shown in figure 3-35.

The use of decorative lights should be natural, the brightness should be properly controlled, and it should be consistent with the projection direction of the main light lamp to make the light effect complete and unified.

How to use light or how to illuminate portrait photography is not only a basic skill, but also an important content that reflects the photographer's level. Lighting plays a decisive role in the whole portrait photography process, compared with adjusting the posture of characters, arranging props and choosing the background. Indoor lighting is usually considered as a very complicated problem. In fact, many complex lighting effects are evolved and sublimated from these basic lighting. If you follow certain rules? Ordinary? Lighting technology is still easy to master. Through the understanding of the above five kinds of light for portrait photography, we have a further understanding of the basic knowledge of light, that is, in the future portrait photography lighting, we can clearly divide the light, and better adjust and control the light.