Basic course of SLR portrait photography
Accurately grasp the influence of aperture and shutter on portrait shooting
The two factors that digital SLR cameras use to control whether photos are exposed correctly are shutter and aperture. Only by controlling the shutter and aperture well can we take a correctly exposed photo, which is the basic requirement for a photo to pass the customs.
The color of underexposed photos will look messy and ugly; An overexposed photo will lack layering in many highlights, which will make the photo lack three-dimensional sense; Only correctly exposed photos will have bright and transparent colors and rich three-dimensional levels. Physical level.
Understand the shutter
Shutter is a device that blocks light from entering the imaging system of SLR camera in front of the lens, mainly to control the exposure time of digital SLR camera. Through the aperture of the lens, the amount of light entering the photosensitive element inside the camera can be completely controlled.
Shutter speed refers to the time between shutter opening and closing, during which light enters the camera. The faster the shutter speed, the shorter the time for light to enter, and the clearer fast moving picture can be captured. The slower the shutter speed, the longer the light enters, and the more light the camera photosensitive original or film gets, and brighter photos can be obtained in the dark environment. However, if the camera shakes or the object moves quickly, the photo will be blurred. Of course, you can also take advantage of this to take photos with special effects.
Understand aperture
Aperture is used to control the amount of light entering the photosensitive surface of the fuselage through the lens, which is an extremely important index parameter of the camera. Its size determines how much light enters the photosensitive element through the lens. The expression of aperture size is expressed by f value, and the smaller the f value, the larger the aperture.
It will affect the level, detail and depth of field of the photo. The larger the aperture, the less layers and details of the photo, and the shallower the depth of field. The smaller the aperture, the more layers and details of the photo, and the deeper the depth of field. Generally speaking, a large aperture is more suitable for taking portrait photos, and a small aperture is more suitable for taking landscape photos.
Chest circumference is more suitable for large aperture shooting, and the figure can be more prominent after blurring the background.
You can take a full-length portrait with a smaller aperture, which will enrich the details and levels of the photo.
The use of aperture and shutter is either automatically adjusted by the machine or manually adjusted by our own experience. If each scene is different from the weather, the combination of aperture and shutter is different. I will introduce it slowly in later chapters.
Make good use of each focusing lens to create a better picture atmosphere.
Lenses with different focal lengths have different uses and tricks. Only by mastering the use of lenses with various focal lengths can we take better portrait photos.
Lens type
The biggest advantage of digital SLR is that it has a rich lens group, and you can choose the corresponding lens no matter what you shoot. There are several kinds of general SLR lenses: zoom lens: there is a rotatable zoom ring on the lens. By rotating the zoom ring, the lens can be expanded and contracted, and the focal length can be changed, so that different viewing angles from telephoto to wide angle can be obtained; Standard fixed-focus lens: The focal length of the lens is fixed and cannot be adjusted. The structure of fixed-focus lens is simpler than that of zoom lens, so the transmittance can be greater; Macro lens (MP-E): used for close-up and shooting distance of small objects; Anti-shake lens: The lens has built-in image stabilizer, which can eliminate the image blur caused by hand shake to a certain extent; Axis shifting lens (TS-E): The focal plane of the object can be controlled freely. By moving the front of the lens up, down, left and right, the focus range can be adjusted independently of the aperture value. Soft focus lens: the soft focus ring can be rotated to adjust the clarity of imaging. By moving some optical elements inside the lens, soft and detailed photos can be obtained. It has a unique fuzzy effect.
Application of zoom lens in various focal lengths
Ultra-wide-angle zoom lens: Generally, the focal length is below 24, which is called ultra-wide angle. Ultra-wide angle can shoot a wide field of vision beyond human vision and bring a very shocking visual impact. However, while pursuing visual effects, the ultra-wide-angle lens will have serious distortion at the four ends of the picture taken by the lens, so the ultra-wide-angle lens is the most difficult lens to use well among several zoom lenses.
It must be noted that the main body of the character must be arranged in the center of the picture to avoid the body part of the character appearing in a distorted position on all sides.
Medium focus zoom lens: the focal length between 24- 100 is called medium focus. Medium coke is the most widely used coke variety. Because this focal length is moderate, the general daily shooting is mainly based on the medium focus lens. This kind of lens is also the simplest to use.
It's not too difficult to take a portrait with a medium focal length. As long as you have a general shooting basis, you can freely use the zoom lens of the medium focus to shoot.
Telephoto zoom lens: A telephoto lens with a focal length greater than 100 is called a telephoto lens. The telephoto lens can create a fuzzy and soft Jiao Wai and depth of field, which is a common lens for portrait shooting. Because the telephoto lens has a long focal length, there is a minimum requirement for a safe shutter, but it is easy to blur people by hand.
When shooting portraits with telephoto lenses, people usually shoot busts, mainly using the blur effect of telephoto lenses to highlight the main body of the characters. Generally, when shooting with a telephoto lens, the shutter should be above 125/ 1 sec without camera lens or fuselage anti-shake. When there is anti-shake, try not to shoot below 60/ 1 sec to ensure clear images.
Make good use of the fuselage settings and take more perfect photos.
When using any tool, we will first know its performance and operation in detail, and digital SLR cameras are no exception. Please read the instructions carefully before using the digital SLR camera. It is a good habit to know every function and setting of the camera. Only in this way can the efficiency of your camera be maximized.
White balance setting of the scene
For many netizens who are new to digital photography, white balance is a very troublesome thing. The accuracy of white balance is very important to the color quality of photos, so it is necessary to master white balance skillfully, and sometimes many special tone effects can be shot by using white balance flexibly.
If shooting in sunny outdoor, you can choose automatic, outdoor and sunny modes, and the white balance function of the camera will enhance the yellow of the image to correct the color deviation.
If shooting in rainy days or indoors, you can choose indoor, cloudy and lighting modes, and the white balance function of the camera will enhance the blue color of the image to correct the color difference. In addition, when shooting indoor tungsten lamp, it can be set to indoor mode or lighting mode.
Because the technology of digital SLR is more and more advanced now, the white balance detected by the camera itself is more accurate, but manual white balance is still needed to get better results. In the next few chapters, I basically teach you how to use manual white balance in various scenarios.
Adjustment of sharpness, color saturation and contrast
Many people often ignore the adjustment of sharpness, color saturation and contrast when using digital SLR cameras. In fact, different settings of sharpness, color saturation and contrast will bring different effects to photos with different themes and different scenes.
Generally, when shooting people's subjects: choose standard or low contrast, standard or high color saturation and medium sharpness; When shooting landscapes, buildings, products, etc. , you can choose high contrast or high color saturation and sharpness. Strong sunshine, night view. When the ratio of flash to light is relatively large, you can choose a lower contrast; On cloudy and foggy days, when the indoor light is low, you can choose one with higher contrast.
Clarity, color saturation and contrast have great influence on the texture, layering and color sense of photos, so setting appropriate clarity, color saturation and contrast in different environments plays a key role in the texture, layering and color sense of photos.
Methods to improve portrait photography
Clear theme ideas make your photos have a clear and distinct theme, is it a person, a still life or a thing? To have content, plot and story, the photographer must first have a clear idea, and then express his thoughts, instead of being ambiguous and vague.
A good work must draw attention to the theme, and you need the audience to pay attention to your theme immediately, because this theme is the core of your expression. The flowers in the hands of the models in this work have played a very good role in embellishment, which just fits the protagonist's yearning for beauty.
Make your picture more concise. All elements that can't set off your subject or even distract your attention should be compressed or excluded. Keep your visual center only on the innocent and lovely expression of your child.
A simple method to prevent portrait deformation. We should keep a distance from the position of the subject when shooting, and try not to use a wide-angle lens unless you want to express an exaggerated effect. In general, a lens with a focal length of 80-90mm is more suitable for outdoor portrait shooting.
Pay attention to the flexible use of the overall posture to make the hand movements of the subject, such as touching the head, teasing the hair, caressing the face, taking off the cheeks, pressing the corners of the mouth, touching the neck, pulling the skirt, teasing the arms, akimbo, resting the thighs, and teasing the feet. In short, hand movements can be explored freely all over the body, and the core is to keep natural and help express emotions. In addition, you can also hold props to make the image more vivid.
Make your theme more natural. "When I take pictures of someone, I always want to avoid the way they are photographed." Famous photographer john long Gard said. Obviously, it is very important for the character to relax during filming. When a character is relaxed, she will show her feelings more naturally. People in life are usually embarrassed and unnatural when facing the camera, and they need communication to make her forget to shoot. Let the subject stand, bend, lean, sit or lie down according to the scene. Anyway, the more comfortable, the more natural.
How to get a shallow depth of field to highlight the characters and blur the main background is to use a large aperture and a long focal length as much as possible, and if possible, let the characters stand as far away from the background as possible.
When shooting a single portrait with diagonal composition, the photographer should keep a certain distance from the subject to avoid the deformation of the character. Diagonal method is usually the safest in composition. Leave some space and gaps to make the picture deeper.
Use busts or headshots reasonably. If it is really difficult for the subject to pose, dress or figure is not good, please try to take busts or headshots. At this time, the eyes and expressions of the subject are the only things you need to grasp.