Table of Contents
Posture Processing and Expression Capture
When shooting, if you feel that the subject is too nervous, you can appropriately borrow scenes or props. This is a coup for taking portrait photos. Many photographers will take advantage of this. We often see the classic posture of “leaning against the wall”. In addition, holding something, or lying on something, can also be a good choice.
Emotion capture
Taking a good portrait photo requires not only mastering the photography technique, but also understanding the psychology of the subject, and fully expressing their personality by capturing the posture and expression of the person. Most of the characters in our shots are not professional actors. Many people get nervous as soon as they get to the camera. Without effective guidance, they can get a dull or one-sided portrait photo.
The key to getting the subject to get rid of the restrained look is to distract him and make him forget that he is taking a picture, so that there is the possibility of true feelings being revealed. For example, to eliminate the uneasy emotions of the character, the best way is to communicate with him more and relax slowly, instead of encouraging him, strengthen his self-confidence; if his posture and expression are not in place, don’t rush to correct it and encourage him continuously. It is worthwhile to guide you step by step during the process, even if you waste a few pieces of film. In the process of guiding, sometimes you can find some common topics to chat together. When he is relaxed and focused, the best time to shoot has arrived, because the focused eyes are the most real, without hypocrisy and strangeness.
When capturing the expressions of characters, the expressiveness of the mouth is often involved, that is, the question of whether to laugh or not. If you blindly ask the subject to “laugh and smile again” during shooting, the result often makes the characters lose their individuality. We do not reject all laughter, but as portraits, what we should pursue is the beauty of normalcy. Between laughing and not laughing, it is a mystery to anyone. As long as you relax and show your true feelings, laughing or not laughing is secondary.
The posture of the body is also closely related to the expression of expressions. First, the posture of the human body is required to be as relaxed as possible, and then it can be further guided. For example, when a character is sitting and leaning forward slightly, it will often give people a friendly and easy-going feeling, which can induce a relaxed smile; on the contrary, when a character leans back slightly, it usually gives a haughty impression. Might as well let him understand where he is, and enhance his self-confidence, so that his arrogant expression will naturally show.
The true expression lies in the guidance, and the final credit lies in the capture. Remember this quote from the famous Canadian portrait photographer Kashi: “The inner thoughts, spirit and soul of a character are sometimes expressed through his eyes, hands and body in an instant-this is what needs to be held tightly. The most important moment that is fleeting.
Precautions for portrait photography
- Lens
Which lens is the best for taking portraits? It is better to shoot portraits with medium and long focal length lenses. If you use 35mm film to shoot, this means you should use a lens with a focal length of 85 to 135mm. Because of the short focal length (under 50 mm) shooting portraits will produce more serious deformation, often exaggerating the characteristics of the face of the person, sometimes making the nose appear larger than the actual appearance, which has a side effect on the appearance of the subject.
When using a longer lens of 85 to 135 mm, which is often referred to as a portrait lens, perspective can compress the space so that the facial features of the subject will show the correct proportions, which will be more prominent and eye-catching. If you want to use a long focal length lens of 200 mm or more, it will make the face look too flat.
- Use a large aperture
When shooting portraits, be careful to avoid using small apertures from f/11 to f/22. Using a small aperture is good for shooting scenery under strong light, but it will be problematic for shooting portraits. A small aperture can make the background look quite clear, which will divert the attention of the subject. The large aperture of f/1.8 to f/4 can blur the background, make it out of focus, and make the subject the only focus in the photo.
However, a large aperture may make the depth of field too shallow. If one eye of the subject is further away from the camera than the other, the eye that is farther away may be out of focus. The remedy is to abandon the background when framing, so that you can use a smaller aperture, or adjust the position of the head of the reporter so that the distance between the eyes and the camera is equal.
What you want to show is your subject rather than the background. In Figure 1, the background is quite clear on the portrait shot at f/16. People will try to distinguish what it is or where it is. On the more powerful portrait taken at f/2.8 in Figure 2, there is no such thing as a background distraction. People’s attention will be focused on what the photographer wants: the subject.
However, blurring the background is not always necessary. You might as well try shooting an environmental portrait. To this end, you need to keep the surrounding background clear and introduce the subject through the characteristics and details of the environment.
Figure 1
Figure 2
- Try the vertical composition to shoot
One of the common mistakes made by novices in portrait photography is to take portraits in landscape orientation. This horizontal composition is good for group portraits, but when you shoot a single person, you need to turn the camera to the vertical position. Jian frame framing is more suitable for single portraits, because this frame corresponds to the vertical rectangular shape of the head itself or the upper body.
There are some issues to be aware of when using horizontal format. For example, the banner portrait on the left is good, but please note that the author’s cut from the chest makes the picture seem rigid and unnatural. The most natural tailoring of the characters should be selected on the narrowest parts of the body, such as the neck and waist. The image on the right uses such a cut for the subject’s vertical viewfinder to achieve a relatively balanced and satisfactory composition.
- Get closer
Another reason for the failure of inexperienced portrait photographers is that they did not get as close as possible when shooting. If the person you photograph is too small on the screen, so that their face and expression cannot be the center of expression in the photo at a glance, then the effect will be poor. The solution is to get closer to shooting. You can go forward and get close to the subject, or use a longer focal length lens to shoot. Nearly produces beauty. The famous war photographer Robert Capa said that if your photos are not good enough, it is because you are not close enough. This is certainly true for portrait photos.
The photo above was taken at a distance of 15 feet. It is neither a portrait nor a cityscape photo. In the picture below, because it is close to the subject, no one suspects that it is a portrait, and it is a successful portrait. By the way, there is another common problem in the above picture, that is, the head of the character is in the center of the screen. When composing a portrait, try to make the key part in the upper half of the screen.
- Avoid glaring light
The most taboo thing about portraits is to use direct sunlight from the top of your head. It will cause dark shadows in the eye sockets, around the nose and under the chin. In order to avoid this destructive light effect, professional portrait photographers like to choose open and shaded venues. For example, under a big tree on a sunny day, there is a large amount of reflected light around it that can fill the local shadows, forming smooth and shadowless lighting on the faces of the characters.
If you have to capture a portrait at noon, you can easily create an open and shaded condition by yourself, that is, let the subject face the sun. Technically speaking, this is called backlighting. This will pose a challenge to your camera meter. The methods described below can solve this problem.
In order to improve the effect of photograph A in direct sunlight, a translucent white umbrella can be used to block the noon sunlight. Another way is to use shading lighting to solve the problem, but the strong light around the subject will interfere with your light meter and cause underexposure of people. To avoid this, you should get close to the subject and take exposure readings directly from their face. Or if your camera is equipped with spot metering, then use it to measure the reflected light from the subject’s face.
- Choose simple clothes
Dazzling colorful costumes will only divert the audience’s attention to the subject. To adopt a simple design and calm colors. If you plan to shoot some casual portraits, you can always have a simple undershirt on hand.
If you take a photo for a celebrity, put a piece of red or blue satin material around her upper body and use it for external fixation, which can replace a strapless or open-necked evening dress.
If you encounter the subject wearing out-of-the-box clothing when shooting, you have to find ways to change this. You can make the picture more compact in the composition, so as to avoid the flashy shirt, or leave the shirt part in the shadow when lighting, and make the face relatively brighter.
Keep the character’s dress simple. The fancy dress will make people turn their attention to the features of the subject to the characters. In terms of color, keeping a simple dress is usually effective.
Bright primary colors can add life to portraits. But pay attention to choosing clothing that matches the true nature of the subject. If possible, let the subject choose the color of his clothes. This effect will be the best. Almost everyone knows what color will make them look best. If he or she is dressed in color matching clothing, the subject’s sky blue or colored eyes will be more obvious.