What is portrait photography?

The so-called portrait photography is a form of photography with characters as the main object of creation. Portrait photography is different from ordinary portrait photography: portrait photography takes the description and expression of the specific appearance and expression of the subject as its primary creative task. Although some portrait photography works also contain certain plots, they mainly show the appearance of the subject.

An excellent portrait photography is the sum of many successful factors: expression, posture, composition, lighting, exposure and production, which are all components of a whole.

A long time ago, people described their image in various ways and needs. The earliest portraits appeared in paintings, especially in the early19th century. At that time, oil painting portraits were very fashionable, and their creation became more and more mature, resulting in many excellent portraits. Moreover, a considerable number of portrait photography works only explain the image of the subject, and there is no specific plot. Figure photography focuses on the events and activities that the subject participates in, and its main task is to show the specific plot, rather than showing the appearance and behavior of the subject with vivid images. The important difference between them is whether they describe the appearance of the characters in detail. Whether it's a single person or a group of people, whether it's a snapshot in a scene or a pose in a photo studio, whether it's a plot or not, as long as it's a photo that mainly shows the specific appearance and mental state of the subject, it belongs to the category of portrait photography. Those photographic works that mainly show the activities and plots of the characters and reflect a certain theme of life, but the appearance of the subject is not very prominent, whether it is close-up or whole body, can only belong to the category of character photography. Of course, in a broad sense, it belongs to people photography. Portrait photography? Shortly after the invention of photography, portraits began to enter the field of photography. Of course, due to the limitation of technical conditions at that time, portrait shooting was only in the initial stage. With the continuous progress of photography technology and the development of people's artistic concepts, portrait photography has undergone great changes today. Nowadays, with the birth of electronic flash device, high-speed autofocus lens and new photosensitive materials, a photographer can complete some realistic and natural portrait masterpieces of various subjects in one day, which greatly enriches the photographer's creative possibilities.