Table of Contents
1. Choose a Suitable Shooting Location
When shooting beautiful women indoors, we can give priority to shooting near the window, using outdoor natural light as the main light source. Because on the windows, especially windows facing north, there will be very soft scattered light. If the window is dusty, the light will be softer. When the light projected into the window is direct light, the photographer can also draw a thin layer of curtains to relieve the intensity of the light.
Near the window, the main character can sit or stand. But it is necessary to control the distance between the person and the window, and at the same time make sure that the person being photographed can get light from outside the window. Adjust the shooting direction and angle. Try to let the model’s face and limbs receive even light. If there is too much contrast between light and dark, you can use a reflector to fill in the light to increase the brightness of the shadow area.
2. Use of Indoor Light
Indoor lighting includes the following 4 types.
1) Main light:
The main light is the preferred light that determines the lighting pattern of the subject, while other lights only play an auxiliary role. The main light used in modern studios is usually emitted by a soft light box. The exposure is determined based on the main light when shooting.
2) Auxiliary light:
As the name suggests, its role is to supplement the lighting of the shadow area and make the shadow lighter. In fact, the auxiliary light can be the same soft light box as the main light, and its light ratio to the main light can be controlled by adjusting the lighting distance or output power.
3) Backlight:
The background light can separate the subject from the background, making the lighting more three-dimensional and spatial. The use of background light should take care of the background color, distance and lighting angle. If you don’t handle it well, you will be self-defeating. Therefore, it is necessary to repeatedly adjust the background light to be just right. Therefore, in order to illuminate the background uniformly, two or more lamps are required.
4) Modification light:
Modification light is also called decorative light and effect light. It is used to highlight the texture of a certain detail of the object in order to achieve the perfect shape, such as eye light, hairstyle light, clothing light, etc. The lighting position of the modification light is determined according to the needs.
3. Use External Flash
The natural light of the shooting scene will change at any time. If the light is insufficient, in order to obtain the ideal exposure effect, the photographer can use an external flash to fill in the light. The photographer chooses to use the on-camera flash or off-camera flash according to the actual situation. Off-camera flash can better control the direction of the flash, and the fill light is more flexible, so many photographers like it.
In portrait photography, the flash is not only used to supplement the light, but also has the function of neutralizing the light, shaping the character and highlighting the characteristics of the character. The flash is often used to balance the brightness of the picture when there is sufficient light.
4. Use Ambient Light
If the light in the shooting environment meets the shooting needs or can obtain photos of people with different aesthetics, the photographer can observe the lighting settings of the venue, so as to make full use of the scene light to get a more realistic picture of people. But these scenes are usually very dark. We can use a tripod to shoot, which can effectively prevent camera shake. Secondly, we can appropriately increase the sensitivity or use reflectors to fill light.
5. Reasonable Composition and Props
When shooting, the composition method will change with the change of the character’s body posture. When shooting indoor beauties, the lines presented by the characters are even more charming. Photographers can use lines to express the unique charm of women. Soft and smooth curves can better show the feminine and sexy body of women. The diagonal line composition has a sense of visual instability in the picture, can enhance the sense of movement, and at the same time make the female figure look more slender.
Props can add interest to the entire scene. It can strengthen the theme of the portrait, highlight the beauty, set off the atmosphere of the picture, and better set off the character and mental state of the character. Choosing appropriate props and characters to match each other is a common technique in portrait photography.
Commonly Used Equipment for Outdoor Portrait Shooting
There are many styles of outdoor portrait photography. The more popular is the type with small depth of field and blurred background. Therefore, when shooting portraits, a lens with a large aperture is usually used to achieve the purpose of blurring the background and highlighting the subject.
The light board is a more commonly used photographic auxiliary tool. It can fill light, eliminate shadows, highlight eyesight, etc. The effects of photos taken with the use of reflectors to fill light are mostly different. If there is no reflector, the photographer can also use white clothes or other reflective objects instead.
A tripod is also a more commonly used tool. When the light is darker and the shutter is slow, the success rate of shooting with a tripod is much higher than without a tripod.
In the choice of focal length, the focal length of 50mm-135mm is usually used for shooting. Portraits taken with this focal length have less distortion and normal perspective. And the effect is more natural and real, in line with people’s visual habits.
But under certain circumstances, you can also use a telephoto lens for shooting. Selecting a telephoto lens for shooting can better blur the background, help highlight the subject, and make the picture more concise and clear. But it should be noted that the background blur of the telephoto lens may be slightly excessive, so that the picture looks unnatural.
In addition, wide-angle lenses are also favored by many photographers when shooting portraits. Using a wide-angle lens can better collect more picture elements, enhance the perspective of the picture. And thus it reflects the environment and enhance the atmosphere. But when shooting, try to avoid the excessive perspective distortion caused by the long-angle lens to the person, which causes the person’s face to be deformed.