Six simple steps to get a professional portrait

When it comes to portraits, there seem to be all kinds of styles, but it's also true. No matter what occupation you are in, canvas prints everyone wants to have a portrait of their own, and they also hope that this photo can show their style well.

Usually this portrait is the head shot is given priority to, cheap canvas prints a lot of portrait photographers "disdain", because they think this portrait is too drab, lack of creativity, but it's not so! Today I have summed up a few tips for you to teach you how to take a portrait head close-up gracefully!

When shooting a close-up of the head, the pose is very limited. Why do I say to pose as a model? This is because all parts of the body are connected in a coordinated way, and overall coherence can have a huge impact on the head and shoulders. You can also use photo manipulation to relax the model, guide the model as much as possible, and then grab the scene from the head to the waist to capture the natural expression. Say more than once, head close-up is not strictly only to pat the head, the appropriate view to the waist is also ok.

Smiles and natural expressions are great for facial expressions, so try both. Even which specific expression models said they would like to have, but in fact you actively guide, need not spend a minute of time, probably can capture more additional natural expression, so at the end of the last shot, also can give more choice space models.

Proper lighting

Relative photography is one of the most common use of 1-2 advocate the lamp, and provides the main light source, light box the role of softbox is very important, it can get more even let you take pictures when the spread of light, have the best to cooperate with reflector are used together, so it can reduce the shadow.

Lighting can also be as simple as possible, in the case of only one light source, can put the light box placed in the place of the slightly higher than the model's head, and tip down 45 °, the effect of this method is quite good, because it can not only provide uniform light shooting, also can make the nose under the shadow show, if coupled with a reflector at the bottom of the chin, soft shadow, that's perfect!

If you want a more three-dimensional image, try the Rembrandt method, which is relatively simple, but it works differently. It is depend on the strong side face side lighting makes the present a triangle shadow, can make a model makes a different face in two but looks, specific operation is to put the light box is placed on one side of a model, about 45 ° above the head position, of course, have the reflector soft shadows will be better.

Pay attention to camera Settings

The camera Settings are also important for taking portraits in the shed. Since many conditions in the shed are not as good as outdoor conditions, it is necessary to shoot in M (manual mode) and control all the conditions in your own hands! The automatic or semi-automatic mode of the camera often provides incorrect exposure. Don't underestimate the exposure factor.

Under normal circumstances, the relative, ISO 100, will be able to get the best quality, the shutter speed is set to synchronize with the flash the speed of (or close) as far as possible, about 1/200 of a second or so, in this case the aperture in F8, can get clear image, if there is need to shoot, numerical aperture can be adjusted to about the F11, is also no problem. Finally, don't forget to focus. Set the focus mode to single focus, and select the focus manually before shooting.

Measure the light and set the lamp frequency

Before shooting to metering, because you can't accurately determining the parameters of the modulation frequency, and different studios and flash power, it is not possible with the feeling of light power set accurately set. The most stable method is to set the camera's exposure parameters after the light measurement, and then fine-tune.

Once all this is set up at the beginning, it will take twice as much to shoot in the back! If the picture is too bright, just lower the output power. Conversely, if it is too dark, increase the output power. If the output power is already the lowest, the image is still over-exposed, you can choose to adjust the lens aperture to F11 or move the light source to a slightly farther place, depending on the circumstances!

How to obtain shallow depth of field effect

When you use relative light source to shoot, want to do model the main light evenly, and also can get large aperture shallow depth of field effect, it is very difficult, in general, it is not possible. An easy and crude way to get a shallow depth-of-field effect is to set up your lighting device and set everything as you expect, and the aperture should be set to F8. Perhaps you can also use a filter to assist with the shooting and then turn the aperture up to get depth of field.

In this process, it should be noted that the camera in the case of the light to change, af may not work too much, so suggest to manual mode, in the meantime, focus and focus, remember to be patient.

Revisit the white background

You might think that most people use a white background for their portraits. It's too similar. This time, the white background can help you, within the lens, suddenly, gray, or even black, it all depends on people and the distance between the background, and the Angle of the light. If you want to get a medium gray background, just need to keep the model and the background of 1-1.5 m distance is ok, because of the light falling can make background underexposure, originally bright white background would magically become gray! By the way, if you don't have a white background, it's ok to find a plain white wall!

Head shots may not sound the most exciting portraits, Animal canvas wall art prints but they can also be creative. From posture to lighting, props and even background choices, once you get serious, think hard and explore, you'll find that it can be fun!