Table of Contents
Overview of Portrait Photography Techniques
Portrait photography is most commonly used in daily life. Portrait photography refers to a type of photography that takes people as the main subject. Portrait photography can be divided into studio portrait photography, indoor portrait photography and outdoor portrait photography according to different shooting environments. Portrait photography usually has two forms of expression: one is a pure portrait that expresses the part above the chest of the character without showing other scenes, and the other is a half-length, full-body portrait of the character.
The key to portrait photography is to have both form and spirit. First of all, to show the appearance of the characters well, we must master the most typical characteristics and show the people as beautiful as possible. Secondly, the natural expression of the person’s inner emotions reflects the person’s character and spiritual outlook. The eyes are the windows of the soul, and they can best embody the charm of the characters.
Successful portrait photography must have your eyes open. In addition to the clear focus of the eyes, there should also be catch light. Eyes without catch light are like two pieces of black charcoal. Catching light can make a person look full of vitality. The soft box and reflector can be used to produce vivid gaze in the eyes of the person being photographed.
The person being photographed must have good dynamics, but also a good demeanor. However, these natural expressions are fleeting. Therefore, photographers must be proficient in using their own photographic equipment. If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools. The best lens for portrait photography is 70-210mm or 80-200mm medium telephoto lens. When possible, it is best for photographers to use a tripod, so that they can focus on the person being photographed, focus and press the shutter at the fastest speed, capture the personality characteristics of the person being photographed, and leave a perfect moment.
Outdoor portraits are one of the easiest and most difficult subjects in photography. Because a good portrait photo must not only show the personality characteristics of the subject, but also express the photographer’s own creativity and the ability to grasp the surrounding environment. Although there is no certain standard for outdoor portrait shooting in a broad sense, there are still certain rules to be found in general outdoor portrait shooting. The following are some common methods and techniques in outdoor portrait shooting, hoping to bring some help to everyone’s shooting.
Preparation Before Shooting
Indispensable-reflector
For portrait shooting, there are no too many requirements on equipment. Although a large aperture lens can create a more perfect depth of field, this does not mean that without a large aperture, a telephoto digital camera cannot take good outdoor portrait works. . Composition and use of light are the essentials in portrait photography. Besides, there are many other ways to achieve the purpose of highlighting the subject. So don’t worry too much about the performance of the digital camera in your hand. Any camera can produce good works as long as you use it properly. .
The reflector is one of the most commonly used tools in outdoor portrait shooting. It can fill the main character in the backlight, eliminate the shadow on the face, and add eye catching light. Therefore, a reflector is indispensable in outdoor portrait shooting.
- Best shooting time and location
In addition to preparing for the equipment, outdoor portrait shooting is also very important in the choice of time. The best time to shoot in the summer is between 6 and 9 in the morning, because the sun is soft and the height is moderate at this time, the portraits will not appear strong shadows, and there is no lack of three-dimensionality under the sun. The sunset is also one of the best time to shoot portraits, but due to the high temperature of nearly 40 degrees, it is generally difficult for models to perform normally, so early morning is the prime time for outdoor portrait shooting in summer.
For the choice of location, try to choose a concise place with few people. Parks and green spaces are one of the simplest choices. Open-air bars full of culture and western-style modern architectural scenes are also good choices. If you like a broad view, then the green spaces in the suburbs are the best choice.
- Shooting angle and composition
For shooting portraits, we usually use a head-up shooting angle, that is, the camera is in a straight line with the photographer’s eyes. A shooting angle that is too high or too low can easily cause deformation of the model’s face. In addition to looking up, another common shooting angle is looking up, that is, shooting from bottom to top. Looking up shots usually use a wide angle, and close up shots can achieve a certain dramatic exaggeration effect. Digital camera users with a wide-angle lens below 28 mm can try shooting. Shooting at this angle may give you some unexpected results.
Pay attention to the combination of the subject’s portrait and the surrounding environment when shooting the composition. The main character should occupy at least one-fifth of the entire photo, because we take a portrait photo, if the proportion of the character occupancy is too small, it will cause the scenery in the entire photo to become overwhelming. Fans who are beginners in portrait photography should pay special attention to this point.
So where should the portrait be placed in the photo? We all know that portrait works can generally be divided into full body, half-length, close-up, and the most common composition is to place the person in the middle of the photo. However, the most popular placement of characters is on the golden grid points of the entire photo, which will make the photo more natural.
One thing to note is that the person’s tilt should be toward the center of the photo, and tilting outward will give people a sense of awkwardness. Of course, if you deliberately want to express a certain style is a special situation, you can shoot according to your own preferences. In short, the conventional golden grid composition has been recognized by most people, who believe that it has a better sense of space and visual effects.
- Choice of focal length:
For portrait photos, it can usually be divided into several common modes of full body, half body and face close-up. Generally, you can take ideal portrait photos by using these modes and combining with the composition described above. However, one thing worth noting for beginners is the choice of focal length.
A reasonable focal length can reflect a stronger sense of space and three-dimensionality. The wrong use of focal length may make your beautiful model’s face flat or lack the sense of layering in the photo.
When shooting full-length and half-length portraits, we cannot blindly pursue a beautiful background blur and directly pull the 10x optical zoom in our hands to the end. Although this can give you a certain small depth of field, the negative effect it brings is the feeling of narrow space vision.
This is because when shooting with telephoto, the angle of light entering the lens is very small, so you can only take a small piece of scenery behind the person. Therefore, we should choose a standard focal length of about 50 mm when taking full-body photos, and it is necessary to use a telephoto of 135 to 200 mm or more for half-length and partial close-ups.
Commonly used 50mm, 85mm and 70-200 zoom lenses are commonly used portrait lenses. Different lenses have their own characteristics in the horizontal and vertical composition methods, but for general photographers, the vertical composition is more suitable for portrait shooting, because the vertical composition can make the characters occupy a larger frame and better express the model’s Facial details. Oblique composition and diagonal composition are also a kind of common portrait composition, which is more dynamic than the previous ones.
As I said before, there is no absolute fixed theorem for portrait composition. The above are just some common routines for your reference. If you have other favorite shooting methods, you may wish to give it a try. Anyway, digital does not use film and does not waste money. Multiple shots can also sum up experience and improve your own composition level.
The Effect of Light on Outdoor Portrait Shooting:
When shooting outdoor portraits, which lighting method is better? Generally speaking, don’t let the model’s face directly face the direct sunlight. The strong sunlight will make the model look down and squint, unable to show the charm of portrait photos. We can choose to shoot in the shadows. The diffused light in the shadows on a sunny day is also enough to provide the color we need, but one thing to be aware of is to avoid shooting under big trees, because when direct sunlight shines on the model’s face through the leaves, it will produce unsightly spots and bright spots.
Although shaded areas are a good choice, portraits in the sun still have a unique style. The first thing we need to do when shooting in the sun is to avoid the model’s face directly facing the sun, let alone facing the sun, because this will form an unsightly yin and yang face. So in the sun, we usually let the model face the sun, which is what we usually call the backlight shooting.
When shooting against the light, because your back is facing the sun, it is easy to cause underexposure of the face. Due to the excessive background brightness, conventional average metering can easily lead to underexposure of the face. We can use exposure compensation or spot metering to increase the exposure to make the face brighter (the picture below shows the comparison of the effects of two different light-filling methods). However, when using this method, the brightness of the entire photo may become higher. While the face becomes brighter, the background also becomes brighter, causing the background sky to become white or cause other details to be lost.
At this time, we need to fill up the face. The easiest way is to put the reflector near the face so that the reflected soft light shines on the face (the excellent effect brought by the reasonable reflector fill light in the figure below), which can increase the light on the face. At the same time, it creates an energizing look in the eyes.
If the reflector still cannot compensate for the strong light contrast between the subject and the background, we can try to move the reflector closer, use two reflectors or use the camera’s flash to superimpose the light. Reflectors are usually white and gold. In sunlight, we generally use the white side of the reflectors to get soft light. If it is cloudy, choose the golden side as it can add a stronger sense of three-dimensionality.
Capture of Demeanor and Others:
Because our outdoor portrait shooters are emotional people, and for some beginner photography enthusiasts, they generally don’t invite expensive professional models to shoot, and most choose pretty friends around them to act as models.
Ordinary girls will inevitably have nervous emotions when they come to the camera. At this time, they often have sluggish expressions and do not know what to do. If you encounter this kind of situation, you, as a photographer, must first keep a clear head. Don’t just tell the model you don’t want to be nervous, but communicate with the model and talk about personal hobbies and other topics. Enough communication can make the model easy and natural. Only in this way can we capture a more innocent and harmonious smile. Portrait shots are generally best for two to four people with one model. A large number of people is not only detrimental to the performance of the model, but also sometimes causes everyone to grab the lens and angle, which affects normal shooting.
The last thing to remind is that the outdoor temperature is often very high in summer, and the temperature difference between it and the air-conditioned room is not small. While doing a good job of preventing heatstroke and cooling, we should also pay attention to the lens condensation problem that the camera is likely to cause when the camera is brought outdoors in an air-conditioned room.