How to shoot portraits with different focal lengths

How to shoot portraits with different focal lengths

Photography is a magical art, but different photography techniques show different aesthetic feelings. I'll tell you how to take portraits with different focal lengths.

In portrait photography, the use of lens language is the most particular. The so-called lens language not only refers to the use of that specific lens, as well as the lens focal length, aperture and other technologies, but also includes the creative skills of using the lens, including composition, light and shadow, emotions expressed in the lens and other artistic means. Before taking a portrait, you should have a pre-conceived design for the shooting. Usually, the first consideration is to show the characters, whether to take close-up portraits, busts or full-length portraits; Secondly, consider the relationship between people and scenery, whether people and scenery are combined with each other, or highlight the blurred background of people. In this way, the different focal lengths of the lens are used to express the relationship between the characters and the scenery.

Standard lens: preferred portrait

The standard lens focal length of about 50mm is most suitable for shooting portraits. People can take close-ups of busts and headshots, and they can also shoot works that blend people and scenery from a distance. And its greatest advantage is that the lens will not produce perspective deformation, and it can show the natural and true beauty of the characters. This part is the portrait works taken by photographers with 50mm standard lens, including close-ups, middle shots and panoramic portraits, from which we can learn a variety of techniques using 50mm standard lens. With the head shot, you will get different picture effects, such as the distance of 1 meter, and the shot works will have the feeling of close-up portraits. The face of the character occupies a large proportion, and the eyes look straight into the camera, as if there is a feeling of seeing through the paper and going straight into the hearts of the people. Shooting at such a distance is not only a test for the model, but also a psychological pressure for the photographer. Only when both sides have experience and cooperate well can such works appear. In contrast, shooting with the head at a distance of 2 meters gives models and photographers their own space. Therefore, models can peacefully enter their own quiet state, and photographers can also pay more attention to photography skills such as composition, running out, and instant snapshot. The whole painting shows the classical painting style. If the distance is farther, reaching 4 ~ 5 meters, the people and scenery in the picture will be more balanced and the depth of the picture will increase. Photographers skillfully use the vague foreground and background to place the model in a seemingly distant space, giving the audience the feeling of free breathing and free enjoyment.

Composition is very important when creating close-ups of portraits. Usually we choose vertical framing, because both the human body lines and the vertical ellipse of the head are very suitable for vertical rectangular pictures. The posture between the person and the camera should also be grasped. When a person's body or face is facing the camera, the picture will appear dull and lifeless. It is an excellent method to adjust the posture of the character by turning your head sideways. The composition method is best to use the upper and lower dichotomy. In the bust, the head of the character is on 1/3, and in the close-up of the head, the eyes are on 1/3.

80mm to 100mm is the best focal length for shooting close-ups of people's heads. Most of the works focus on busts and heads and shoulders, with emphasis on the brewing of people's eyes and demeanor. This kind of work is full of strong feelings. Through the characters' eyes and gestures, they reveal feelings such as longing, implication and delicacy, and form emotional communication between the audience and the model.

? Medium-long focal length: focusing on people

Shooting portraits with a medium-long zoom lens above 80mm can make the characters fill the picture and occupy a larger proportion, thus playing a role in highlighting the main body of the characters; Second, a long focal length can bring the depth effect of the scene, which is more conducive to obtaining the blur of the background and foreground. So many portrait photographers like to use this kind of focal lens. Portrait snapshots, lenses with focal length greater than 100mm can also capture more natural expressions and actions in the distance without attracting the attention of the subject. The characteristic of long focal length lens imaging is that it has a sense of space compression, that is, it squeezes and flattens the deep space, resulting in the effect of overlapping characters and space scenery. Photographers usually pay more attention to the external characteristics of models, such as expressions, movements, etc. Paying attention to the inner feelings of the characters is also the key. When the model is at rest, she will gradually sink into her own thoughts. At this moment, her inner feelings will be expressed through expressions and expressions. The photographer seized this emotional clue and depicted it in the photo.

Use a long-focus lens to shoot portraits at a distance of 10 meter, highlighting the influence of environmental factors. But people, as the focus, need special attention. In the two works on this page, the photographer uses different techniques to express the characters: one uses the central composition method to highlight the characters by contrast between light and dark; The other is to compose a composition with a three-point method, and highlight the characters through the comparison of reality and reality, each with its own unique interest.

? Wide-angle lens: focus on the scenery

A small wide-angle lens of about 35mm is suitable for shooting? Portrait+environment? Photographic works of. Compared with the standard lens, the proportion of scenery in this kind of works is larger, and the environment and background are more prominent. Therefore, before shooting, it is very important for the photographer to choose the scene, such as whether the scenery is in harmony with the character, whether the natural light is suitable and so on. Using a wide-angle lens, the common composition method is the banner trisection. For example, let the whole character be on one side of the picture and the environmental background be arranged on the other side of the picture. This kind of composition is very balanced, and the characters and environment have a good performance. A small wide-angle camera with a focal length of 35mm can use a very flexible composition method. In the two works on this page, the author makes the background factors concise, but highlights the changes of color and light. The environment not only does not interfere with the characters, but also sets off the atmosphere of the whole work. In this way, combined with the posture of the model, it reflects the taste of picturesque portrait works. In portrait photography with documentary photography, in order to avoid the influence of messy background environment, it is necessary to shoot close to the crowd. Let the characters, especially her face, occupy a larger proportion of the picture. In this work, although the background is rich in color and various horizontal and vertical lines are interlaced, the soft facial and hair lines and healthy skin color of the girl are in sharp contrast with the background, so the picture is much more vivid.

It should be noted that the choice of environment should be commensurate with the clothes and temperament of the characters. If you can't find a suitable background, you can use a simple and common environment, such as uninhabited wild Woods, old rattan walls in small streets, or wild blue sky. This environment is unusual, but the effect of taking portraits is excellent.

? Different fuzziness

In portrait shooting, the blur effect must be grasped accurately. Under different focal lengths and different shooting distances, the effect of virtual and real changes is different. The maximum aperture of different lenses is different. For commonly used zoom lenses, the maximum aperture of wide angle is usually at f/2.8 or f/4, while the maximum aperture of medium telephoto is at f/4 and f/5.6. This kind of lens and maximum aperture can be said to be the best choice for shooting portraits, which can produce the effect of clear characters and blurred background. The blur effect of some fixed-focus lenses is very strange, and there is a sense of vortex, which is also called vortex shooting. In this shot, the bright spot of Jiao Wai is blurred into an ellipse and rotates with the circumference, thus forming this fantastic blur effect. This is related to the lens group structure of the lens, and usually some old lenses can bring this effect.

In portrait photography, in addition to the blur effect of aperture, the most commonly used blur effect also includes the method of increasing the blur foreground. Deliberately adding some natural and charming scenery near the lens, blurred into an indistinguishable hazy state, can make the work have a subtle little artistic conception of seeing beauty through curtains.

? The hazy effect of light and fog

Surprisingly, it is a very difficult skill to use the light fog effect in portrait photography. This technology is difficult to master, and it is also related to the weather, the height of the sun, the intensity of irradiation and so on. Therefore, most of these works are based on personal artistic creation and are rarely used for commercial portrait photography. So there is a novel and unique feeling. Light fog will lead to gray fog in photos, reducing the overall contrast. Traditional photography textbooks strongly demand to avoid this situation. As for the creative shooting of portrait works with hazy effect, the knowledge introduced in this book is very one-sided, even unrealistic, which requires photographers to experiment bit by bit, sum up their experience bit by bit and find a suitable shooting method.

First of all, we should dare to use backlight to shoot, and the light should have a certain intensity, but not too strong; Secondly, the angle of backlight is best to let light enter the lens, not directly in the center of the lens; Third, the characters should be interlaced with the light, and they can also block the strong light; Finally, the technology of exposure control. At this moment, automatic exposure is unreliable. It is best to add more than 2 levels of exposure on the basis of automatic exposure. The direct shooting effect brought by the hazy effect of light and fog is often unsatisfactory, and the post-processing needs a lot of time and energy. The more excellent works that look natural and beautiful, the more the author actually pays.

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