Concept and characteristics of portrait photography

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. The following is the knowledge about portrait photography that I carefully recommend for you, hoping to help you.

Concept feature concept

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.

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.

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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 takes the description and description of the appearance and manner of the subject as its performance task, and the characters should have distinctive looks. Can be divided into three categories: photography indoor portrait, indoor specific environment portrait, outdoor portrait. What are the requirements for portrait photography? Both form and spirit? .

Photography preparation 1, photography use

This refers to the scope of use of the camera. Novices who only take family photos, full-length and half-length photos as souvenirs can cope by buying an ordinary small 135 camera; This kind of camera is usually equipped with a standard lens, which can take both black and white portraits and color portraits. Or can I buy one? Fool? Camera; Small size, simple structure, equipped with flash device, not only convenient to use, but also can take pictures when picked up, without buying a flash separately. If you plan to use a camera to create character art, you can consider buying a single-lens reflective camera; Generally, this kind of camera can change lenses with different focal lengths, and has a high degree of automation, and can take photos of all kinds of people, such as the whole body, bust and specific head.

2. Personal hobbies

Every photographer has different hobbies, some like 135 camera and some like 120 camera. These two cameras have their own advantages and characteristics, so it's hard to say which one is good or not. Generally speaking, 135 camera is small and exquisite, easy to carry and use, and the cost of each negative is relatively cheap. 120 camera, with some interchangeable film boxes, can shoot various formats. At the same time, due to the large format of the negative film and the relatively delicate and soft particles in the photo, the face of the character presents a rich sense of hierarchy and real texture.

3. Economic situation

In the market, there are many models, different functions and different structures of cameras. Although their basic performance is similar, their prices are quite different. When buying a camera, I must consider whether its price is suitable for my economic conditions. Under normal circumstances, you can choose a mid-range camera, which is suitable for photography of all kinds of people. It must be recognized that the quality of a camera is not necessarily related to the quality of a person's photos. Using high-end cameras can't guarantee the quality of every photo; Ordinary cameras can also take high-quality photos of people. The important thing is that you must be familiar with the structure and performance of the camera and master the operation technology skillfully.

Lens selection 1, imaging

The lens imaging quality of figure photography should not only be clear, but also have a certain feminine effect. Because people's photography generally focuses on the face, the quality of lens imaging should meet the requirements of rich layers, real texture, exposed details and moist skin.

2. Focal length

Generally, cameras are equipped with standard lenses, that is, the focal length is close to the diagonal length of the film frame. This kind of lens is only suitable for people who shoot the whole body or bust. If it is used to shoot busts or close-ups of the head, it will often cause perspective distortion. If some shots are shot close to the specified shooting distance, they will not be able to bring into clear focus. Therefore, to shoot an avatar or close-up figure, you need to use a medium-focus or telephoto lens, and its focal length generally needs to exceed the standard lens 1? Take 135 camera as an example, the focal length of the lens should be above 105 mm, so that the distance between the camera and people can be above 1.5 m, which can not only make the focus clear, but also avoid deformation phenomena such as big nose and small ears. If you take a small group photo indoors, you need to use a short focal length lens (that is, a wide-angle lens) when you encounter insufficient return difference, but it is prone to the defects of people who are near big and far small and slightly deformed on both sides.

3, caliber

When shooting close-ups of busts and headshots, the effective aperture of the lens should be large, so that the subject is clear and the background is slightly blurred, which enhances the perspective of far and near space and highlights the subject. In addition, the effective aperture of the lens is large, so you can still use a faster shutter speed when shooting dynamic people in slightly dim light without flash.

Picture balance is a concept in mechanics. When it is applied to the composition of figure photography, it means that the subject in the picture is in a relatively balanced state, which makes the figure photo feel stable and comfortable visually. In order to master the balance of people's photographic pictures, we should generally pay attention to the following aspects:

1, top targets

The head face of figure photography, visually, is heavy and the back of the head is light. Therefore, when shooting a profile image, the image needs to be slightly back, or even there is no space behind the back of the head, so that the space in front of the face is larger than the back of the head. This can not only stretch the line of sight of the face room, but also keep the balance of the picture. But there are also some performances? Impulse? The theme of the plot, the space in front of the character's face is smaller than the back of the head, which makes the picture feel weightless, which is a special location arrangement according to the needs of the theme.

2. Main aspects

Inequalities in the structural forms of people's photographs (see "What are the structural forms of people's photographs? The posture of the subject, such as leaning, leaning or leaning, often leads to a sense of weightlessness and instability. To this end, it can be made of the subject's own shoulders, his own hands and books, flowers, cups, fans and other foil related to the theme. Pad？ , you can let the weightless subject play a stable role.

3. Body and foil.

The subject matter of figure photography is set off by scenery. Visually, figures are more important than scenery. Therefore, the space occupied by characters can be arranged smaller, while the space occupied by scenery can be arranged larger, so as to achieve the balance of the picture. For example, shooting a bust of characters writing, in which a large area of characters can be arranged on one side, and correspondingly, objects such as ink bottles or inkstones can be placed on the other side of the table to keep the picture balanced.

4. Darkness and light.

In people's photographic composition, the visual weight of light and shade is different, generally dark color is the most important and light color is the least. Usually, a small area of dark blocks can be balanced by a large area of gray or bright blocks. If a part is too deep or too shallow, the light-colored scene can be chosen in the part that is too deep? Pad？ ; Can I choose a dark scene in too bright parts? Pad？ . However, it should be strictly noted that there must be a certain contrast between the deep background and the shallow background, so as to increase or decrease the weight and balance the picture.

5. color.