Tone problem of portrait photography

Tone affects vision and mood. Portrait photography can be divided into five tones: high-key, low-key, one tone, soft tone and hard tone. In addition, it can be processed into different tones. It is necessary to master the composition methods of various shades.

First, the influence of mood on vision.

Tone in portrait photography is the general term of tone and tone. The change of dark parts in photos is the change of color tone, which is formed by the amount of light received by the subject and his own reflectivity. Whether it is black-and-white photography or color photography, there is such a change in tone. For example, if a red dress is irradiated by reverse light, the light-receiving surface and non-light-receiving surface of the dress will form different tones. Although they are all red, the color of the light-receiving surface is brighter, and the color of the non-light-receiving surface is darker. This is the change of hue in color pictures. Tone refers to the change of color, such as whether the photo is the tone of the Red Chamber or the tone of Lan Qing, which is the difference of color. A portrait photography, if it is black and white, only changes in tone, no changes in tone; If it is colored, there are both tonal changes and tonal changes.

Portrait photography works, from the perspective of color, can have high-profile portraits, low-key portraits, and middle-tone portraits. Soft-tone portraits and hard-tone portraits; From the perspective of tone composition, it can be warm tone, cold tone, contrast, harmony, heavy color, light color and so on. These different shades and tones affect the overall visual impression to the audience, and also affect the audience's thoughts and feelings. For example, a high-profile black-and-white or color photo gives the audience a bright and fresh feeling; Low-key black-and-white or color photos can give viewers a dignified and profound association; Warm-colored portraits can often arouse excitement and pleasure; Cold-toned portraits symbolize seriousness and tranquility ... so when we are engaged in portrait photography, we should not only consider its composition and light consumption, but also pay attention to the visual effect of its tone. The following is a summary of several commonly used tone processing technologies.

Second, the color composition of portrait photography

People usually divide portrait photography into high-key, low-key and medium-key. In fact, when we say "intermediate tone", we don't mean that the photo is composed of gray tones that are neither too deep nor too light, but relatively speaking, there are still a series of black, white and gray shades in the photo. In addition, the author also believes that when talking about the tone of portrait photography, in addition to the difference between light and shade, there are also differences between soft and hard tones. In fact, many portrait photography works are shot in Russian soft tones, and of course there are also hard tone photographers with great contrast.