Take an infectious portrait photo

The human face is a very attractive overall work of art. Although all faces have the same physical structure, they do not look the same. It can be said that they are unique original works. In fact, the face is the most personalized part of the human body, canvas au and it is no accident that a person's personality can be reflected in it.

Each element of the face varies in shape, size, photos on canvas and spacing enough to create a characteristic face for everyone. Even identical twins differ slightly in these respects. In addition, the texture and color of hair and skin are also different, even after the vicissitudes of life, this difference still exists. At the same time, after centuries of generation, a circle of fixed group will have some unique facial physiological characteristics, these characteristics make such cultural groups or regional groups is different from the other groups.

Of course, everyone's ability to distinguish between different kinds of faces varies from person to person, and the acquisition and promotion of this ability also require a lot of practice to a large extent. In our own culture, we can easily recognize each other by identifying various faces. But when we're in an unfamiliar culture, it's very difficult to distinguish. Europeans, for example, find it harder to recognise Asian faces, and vice versa.

The composition and proportion of the face

"Face" refers to the front of the head that is not covered by hair. If a man unfortunately the bald, even people comfort to the light on the top of the head is called a "extends its expressive face" space, the upper part of the scalp area in fact is not belong to the category of human faces. Among the various references, there is no consensus on whether the ear belongs to the face. In contrast, the area from the cheeks to the ears, even covered with long hair or a beard, is still considered part of the face.

The observer subconsciously divides the face vertically down into three parts. The larger forehead separately forms the upper area, the middle area is mainly occupied by the eyes and nose, and the mouth and chin together form the lower area. If these three parts are equally high, the face presents an ideal perfect face shape. However, the reality is far from the ideal, and the proportion of the face, middle and lower parts of the real people does not follow this kind of equality. If the three parts of the face are seriously disproportioned, the face will not bring beauty to people, and there will be no attraction.

Hair forms the fourth area. It's above the face, and it's close to the three areas of the face. In this way, the eyes are right in the middle of the head -- the whole head, not the face, mind you. In general, the ratio of face width to height is 2-3 -- the greater the difference from this average, the less attractive the face appears.

The horizontal eye position also has a perfect standard ratio. If the distance between the eyes is exactly half the width of the face, that is, the left and right eyes are located on the central axis of the left and right sides of the face, then the face will look very coordinated and beautiful. If the distance between the eyes is too narrow or too wide, the beauty is lost.

Different left and right sides

About a person's face is not the same, but the difference in some people's face are more obvious, some people in the face is not significant, but the two completely identical half face does not exist. Through a small game, we can take in everything in a glance, the discrepancy please in around half face illumination under the same conditions, from the face model, and will get the photos from the middle of cut; Next, two half photos were placed in front of the mirror, and two stitched photos were obtained through the mirror image. In this way, we have three pictures in hand: the first is the original photo, the second is a Mosaic of two left faces and the third is a Mosaic of two right faces. Thus, the difference between left and right faces is clear.

Specific facial elements are observed from top to bottom: the difference between left and right sides has been shown since the radian of eyes and eyelids. The left and right sides of the cheekbones, nose, lips and chin are not exactly the same. In addition, there are differences in the overall width of the left and right half of the face.

In addition to being genetically determined, the physiological mechanism of the right and left faces being controlled by different brain regions is also responsible for this difference. The left side of a person's face (from the perspective of itself rather than the opposite observer) by the side of the brain control (right brain produce and deal with emotions, dreams and creativity), by the head of the emotion and art of the right hemisphere, compared to human left face to right face appears more soft and fragile and innocent, are more likely to express true feelings inside. Human right face, on the other hand, by the competent reason left brain control (language, logic, and analysis capabilities are located in this area of the brain), therefore, generally speaking right face more show a bright and cheerful disposition, active, but sometimes also can show a more deep sense of caution, persistence and serious.

The left and right halves of the face are controlled by the right and left hemispheres, which are responsible for different functions. This will become apparent over time. From the left side of the face, which tends to be more expressive and controlled by the subconscious, people can read out a person's real inner feelings and learn about his emotions and joys.

On the contrary, the right side of the face controlled by reason displays more information that is expected to be accepted by the other side. In social interaction, it makes sense to focus on the other person's right side of the face. Because if we're dealing with each other and we always know what the other person is feeling and thinking about us, it's likely to cause a lot more conflict than we do now.

Capture the best

As a photographer, you can make the most of the difference between the left and right sides of your face, consciously focusing on the other side or the popular or personal side. If you focus on your right face, the model in the photo will look reserved, cool and self-possessed, and of course may be more friendly, active and friendly. On the contrary, if you focus on the left face of the model, he will appear emotional, authentic and direct, and of course may appear more tired, autistic and hostile. By using the appropriate Angle and light, it is easy to highlight the features that half of the face focuses on.

In this way, you can guide the portrait photography process, through a certain method, so that the model according to your shooting concept of the corresponding display.

But if your focus is the only model appearance, want him to seem extremely beautiful in lens, then you can be targeted to find each other to make a so-called "chocolate" - the picturesque, piercing face can render is like sweet chocolate, to bring people the enjoyment of pleasure. Through countless attempts, we've come to the conclusion that both the model and the viewer agree that in most cases, the left face looks even more michelle. The left face is also known as the "sweet chocolate side". Even when participants looked at a set of photos taken with a mirror, they found the left face more attractive. Some people's perception of their appearance is based on the image they see in the mirror, so they sometimes have trouble recognizing and accepting themselves in the picture. The reason for this is that the image in the mirror and the image in the photo are reversed in the left and right directions, so the image of the self in the photo is not consistent with the image of the self. In very special cases, you can flip the photo horizontally to get a new photo, which will be accepted by the other party. Generally speaking, however, this method is considered taboo in portrait photography and should be avoided as much as possible.

What makes faces beautiful?

The aesthetic of the face is usually with a strong subjective color and personal preference. However, there is still a great deal of scientific research to find out certain criteria for judging a face's beauty. There have been some very instructive attempts to discover that there are actually some objective criteria for judging beauty. In other words, these standards are not influenced by individual aesthetic preferences, but also cross cultural boundaries and are universally applicable.

Most of these experiments are based on taking pictures of people and asking many people to rate their "attractiveness". The subjects were presented with photographs of real people, "average faces" (a face made from many people's faces) and digitally altered images of faces that had been targeted. From the results of the experiment, a total of five factors were identified that could produce more than average levels of attractiveness.

Symmetrical facial features. This symmetry implies that the height of the face from top to bottom should be similar in the vertical direction, and that the left and right halves of the face should be as similar as possible. People with such symmetrical faces are considered to be particularly attractive. This aesthetic even applies to primitive tribes and newborns.

Average facial features. It has previously been found that the closer a face is to the "average face" of all faces, the more attractive it becomes. Nowadays people know the exact reason more: when a face no extremes of facial features, such as too small eyes, big nose, thick eyebrows, lips or is too thin to in chin - will be considered "good".

Smooth, clean, slightly tan skin. This is a positive plus. In the process of compositing or deforming many faces into an "average face", the skin becomes noticeably smoother and purer - adding extra attractiveness to the face.

Babyface features. The so-called "baby face" is also a positive factor that can make faces vivid and beautiful. Large round eyes, a large forehead, a small nose and a small chin combined with round cheeks form the main features of a baby face. Baby face, however, these features should not be too much, it is only with some sexy mature facial features together - such as high cheekbones, smooth lips and thick hair - can enhance the charm of the whole face. In this combination, the more prominent features of babyfaceness can especially increase the attractiveness of female faces. By contrast, for a male face to be positively attractive, its babyfaceness must be much weaker.

Positive, sunny emotion. Positive facial expressions, such as an implicit zipped smile or a brilliant laugh, can bring pleasure to the viewer's senses and add attraction.

These five factors, which affect the face appeal has universality, the reason is that a symmetrical, "average" face means that one gene is relatively healthy, and it is one of the most important standards people choose life partner. To us, this standard seems to have become an inherent aesthetic tendency, with a congenital and universal nature.

But, in addition, personal preferences also influence judgments of beauty. Different preferences lead to different standards. The beauty in the eyes of the appreciator can vary greatly. In addition, it should be noted that the motive for portrait photography is not always to show the beauty of appearance. There are other considerations for photographers.

Personality characteristics and image expression

The characters in advertisements are often shown with perfectly symmetrical faces. But in fact, most people's faces are not symmetrical. Further, the greater the difference between the left and right sides of the face, and the farther the face scale deviates from the mean value, the more distinctive the face's owner will appear and the easier it will be to recognize.

Although these asymmetric face angular, does not conform to the traditional aesthetic, but often it is this kind of asymmetry contains a unique tension and charm, which is to create a picture of expressive character portrait of a condition, this picture will convey more than the "beauty". This kind of personalized portrait can encourage photo viewers to explore a person's character and life experience.

A person's face changes all the time, which is why personality portraits have such good expression. Healthy or unhealthy lifestyle, ups and downs of fate or every happy smile from the heart will leave its own unique imprint on the face. As the years go by, we can read more and more clearly from a person's face his inner world, personality characteristics and the person's vision of life. The famous dramatist Bernard shaw once commented on this phenomenon as follows: from the age of thirty, everyone is responsible for his appearance.

It is this personal life experience, whether sad or happy, that is especially attractive to social animals like people. For this reason, the face that can show character characteristic can be regarded as a subject matter that shoots. Therefore, people can (and should) recognize these signs on their faces that are given by the years and are full of the accumulation of life.

Proper focal length

In fact, the true facial proportions are not the same as what we see with the naked eye. When we talk to someone and look at their face, our focus is very focused. Look at this time into a small Angle of 20 °, probably at the same time, attention is concentrated on the eyes, nose and mouth of the three with access to information is closely related to the area. As a result, we rarely look beyond the edge of the head. In this case, the face we see is thinner and thinner than it actually is.

A lens with a focal range of 85 ~ 135mm in full-frame mode produces an image that is very similar to the visual effects of the human eye described above. Such focal length can make the head look thin and thin in a face or bust, making it ideal for standard portrait photography.

On the contrary, a head shot with a short focal length lens will appear wide and unaesthetic. This includes lenses with a focal range of 50 to 70mm. If a wide Angle lens with a focal length of 35mm or less is used, the face under the lens will be partially distorted and have no beauty at all. A nose close to a camera can appear unusually large, while ears a few centimetres away appear very small. This kind of imaging should only be used in exaggerated caricature - with your model's permission, of course.

But even long lenses are not really suitable for face photography. Long focal lengths of more than 150mm filter out the spatial dimensions of the face, making it appear flat. This two-dimensional flatness is not consistent with the way we view things, and the photos presented in this way are very unnatural. But compared with wide Angle lens, imaging produced by using this lens defects is not so obvious, that there are times when a 200 mm telephoto will be mistakenly think that is suitable for shooting portraits.

To mention again, the above focal length is in the full frame specifications. In fact, it is the camera's image Angle (which is related to the sensor size) rather than the focal length that affects the composition of the picture. In view of this, you should pay attention to the cutting factor or the frame factor of each camera. The focal length of a camera with aps-c sensor should be 55 ~ 90mm, glass photo prints and that of a 4/3 standard sensor should be 40 ~ 65mm.