35mm equivalent. The starting point of shooting is from chest level. However, the more “telephoto” the lens is, the less it will matter.

7. “Full-length portrait”

Also a classic. There are three of them, “classics” - “head and shoulders”, “3/4” and “full height”. Here

we show the whole person - something general about him, how he lives in this busy world, how he communicates with him. Not all people look good from this angle. Maybe

because not everyone knows how to live correctly...

The overall silhouette and mood of the pose are important here. An incorrectly turned leg can look very comical, especially the foot. Feet are very expressive parts of the body. Women

lengthen their calves using high-heeled shoes - but it will only look beautiful

if you shoot with a telephoto camera. Therefore, in most home studios, high-quality full-length portraits are rarely obtained - there is not enough space.

When shooting digitally, remember that on a large sheet of paper the frames look completely different from

in the viewfinder or on the camera screen. Firstly, size greatly changes perception.

Secondly, the frame greatly influences perception. Which is usually not black like the camera body. Make yourself a frame with a rectangular slot from a piece of cardboard covered with white paper. And check the frame by looking through this frame. To easily change sizes, divide the cardboard into two “L”-shaped pieces and move them relative to each other.

Portrait photography techniques for beginner photographers

Such a cut greatly increases the discomfort when viewing and sometimes this is exactly what is needed. After all, any emotion catches you, and if you couldn’t hook you with an idea, you start looking

consolation in technical means- you dramatize colors and contrast, cut according to

alive, you make brutal facial expressions on the model, you fill up the horizon like hell and use a wide-angle. All this - good means when you use them appropriately. But they are not

replacement message [message, message].

All of the above are just starting points. You can remove the feet in shoes or clasped fingers separately. You can shoot a person from behind, or in a highly distorted,

curled up position. Anything is possible, as long as it’s not “just funny”, but the idea is conveyed. There must be an idea in everything.

Cropping in portrait photography.

Portrait photography techniques for beginner photographers

Cropping in portrait photography. Memo for a beginning photographer

1. Close-up portrait

2. Head and shoulders

3. Head and chest

4. Half-length portrait

5. 3/4 above the knees

6. 3/4 below the knees

7. Full length

Portrait photography techniques for beginner photographers

The book uses materials from a reference and practical guide

EF LENS WORK EOS Eyes

Eighth edition, September 2006

The photographs contained in this book are the property of the corporation.

Canon Inc., or used with permission of the photographer, or taken from open public sources

What distinguishes a full-length portrait from a simple full-length photograph of a person? Did you guess it? Of course the plot! And therefore, when shooting a studio full-length portrait, you will need to not only set the lighting correctly, but also choose the pose of the model and build the composition of the photo - only then can your work be called a full-length portrait.

Lighting.
We will consider a simple lighting scheme, which is often used on a limited budget. The main light source is a studio flash with a medium-sized softbox. Mounted at a 45 degree angle to the model, at a height high enough to illuminate the model's face and upper body. We install the second flash, also with a medium softbox, under the main light source at approximately the level of the model’s chest, this is necessary in order to illuminate the model’s full height.

As a result, we get uniform lighting. Once the main light is established, you can experiment with additional light sources. By installing a silver reflector on the side, behind the model's back (opposite the main light source), we will get backlight that will separate the model from the background. If the reflector is positioned at a 45 degree angle in front of the model, with opposite side from the light source, the shadows will be softer, and the picture will not be as contrasty.

Frame construction.
Of course, the model must be in the frame completely, at full height; you cannot cut off parts of the model’s body. The standard filling of the frame is the subject in the middle. But practice shows that a subject composition requires space, so it is better to move the model a little from the center of the frame following the rule of thirds (leave more background on one side than the other). More space is left above the model's figure than below it.

Choosing poses in a full-length portrait it is huge, but using a template is strictly not recommended; for each model, poses must be selected individually, taking into account body type, height, subject, clothing. The main thing is that the model does not look like a statue in the photograph, that she is not pressed or constrained. Be sure to pay attention to the model's facial expression and the general state of the composition.

The general style of a full-length portrait is often determined by the model’s clothing - the more formal and formal it is, the more formal the model’s poses will be. Casual clothing is more appropriate; it gives wide freedom in choosing the subject of the photo. If you plan to shoot for a clothing catalog, then the model’s poses should be lively and dynamic in order, first of all, to demonstrate the clothes in an advantageous light.

The camera is usually placed at or slightly below the model's chest level, but as with lighting, a lot depends on the intended subject.

To make it easier to work with a model, when shooting a full-length portrait, they often use various accessories– umbrellas, glasses, fruits, etc. They don’t necessarily have to be in the frame, the model can just look at the objects and imagine something - here you have a ready-made plot. Don’t neglect this “little thing” - it will help you save a lot of nerves and time, and take interesting, unusual pictures. Good luck!

Very often, when creating a portrait of teenagers 15-18 years old, the same problem arises - the problem of naturalness when posing. This is due to the fact that teenagers are nervous and shy in front of the photographer, and there are objective reasons for this. Look back, look at yours life experience how often have you had to pose for a photographer? 2-3 times, and only on major holidays - a family portrait, your wedding or the wedding of friends or relatives, graduation class at school or college.

I’ll tell you now how this is done.

Once your subject feels comfortable and has taken a natural pose, you shoot him in full body, positioning the subject in the frame so that he occupies the maximum area of ​​the frame.

Then move closer and shoot a person ¾ or ½ the person's height, also filling the frame as much as possible.

Finally, you get really close and take a close-up shot.

As a result, you have three options for pictures that you can offer to the customer. On the other hand, commercially, you can sell them as a triptych and make money more money from one shoot. On the other hand, you have material for creativity when creating an album or collage.

The same can be done by changing the photography angle and creating the illusion of a variety of poses.

A good full-length portrait photograph.

A photo taken at 2/3 of the girl's height and turning her head in the other direction also looks wonderful.

Taking a close-up shot with a different camera angle gives the portrait a completely different look.

On the one hand, it seems that there is nothing complicated. We just frame the frame as we need it and press the camera’s shutter button. In fact, very often you have to work very hard to get your teenager to feel comfortable in front of the camera and to appear as natural as possible. By photographing this way, not only do you get three options for the shot, but with each image you take, you get physically closer to the subject, which ultimately blurs the lines of discomfort.

In addition, you have a huge space for your own creativity; choose how and at what angle to create this or that portrait. You also don't have to start photographing with general plan, or you can start it with ½ the height of a person, as I did in the following example.

The first photo was taken at half the girl's height from a low shooting point to add drama to the situation.

And the third close-up shot was taken from eye level, but the photo was taken from a different angle, which is much easier than forcing the girl to change position.

The next time you create portraits on the street or in the studio, and are faced with the problem of posing, simply choose the appropriate pose for the subject of the portrait and start shooting in threes. Both you and the model will only enjoy the photo shoot process.

WITH Best wishes, photographer Kevin Focht.

Running out of ideas for portraits? What often happens is that a photographer puts so much thought into backgrounds and color schemes that they forget about fundamental aspects of portrait photography, such as the pose of your subject.

A great way to take portraits in your home studio is to shoot with a minimal amount of staging and props. By experimenting with different poses, you can figure out which ones work best and use them in subsequent shoots.

We have prepared a small cheat sheet for you that you can download for inspiration.

Included here are some traditional portrait poses: full-length, seated, low and high perspective, close-ups. They are accompanied by small tips aimed at achieving excellent results.

Full length portraits

Any person who has digital camera, can make a portrait. You just ask someone to look through your lens and press a button, right? But in order to achieve high-quality, professional portraits, you'll have to put some thought into and preparation for the shots. Once all the settings on the camera are set and the light is set, it's up to the composition and poses of the models.

Photography Tips:

To illuminate the left side of the model, we used a pulsed light source and a large softbox.

On the right side, a full-length reflector was used

Exposure is set to manual mode and in all photos the settings are as follows: 1/60, f/13, ISO 100

Photography Tips:

Work with your model during the shoot to ensure good eye contact and an open smile.

Try asking the model to place her hand on her head, this will make her stomach look flatter.

A CanonEF 24-105 mmf/4LISUSM was used for all portraits, but almost any zoom lens could do the job

One knee covering the other will give your body more curves.

Sitting portraits

To get the most out of your subject, you must learn to connect with them while shooting. Building relationships with people is the most quick way Get the best poses and facial expressions from them, it turns simple shots into professional portraits. But don't expect good shots right away. It takes some time for you to “shoot in” and for the model to get used to shooting. Relax, take your time, and remember to be cheerful and friendly. Encourage feedback with the model about the poses taken, showing her the photos that turned out on your LCD, and very soon you will get the desired result.

Photography Tips:

If you simply ask the model to tilt her head, it will become a better pose.

Hands on hips add sensuality

If you sit sideways, your legs are more visible

Photography Tips:

Relaxed hands = relaxed model

A more dynamic body position can be achieved by sitting backwards on a chair, sideways to the photographer

If you put your feet on your toes, this will make your muscles strong and prominent.

Shoot from below and from above

If you're shooting from a low angle, you'll need tall canvases and backdrops. An alternative is to shoot outdoors, using the sky as a bright backdrop for portraits. Another aspect, if you're shooting from above, make sure the studio floor or background is clean, otherwise you'll have to spend a lot of time cleaning up muddy marks and smudges in Photoshop.

Photography Tips:

Ask the model to turn away and then look over her shoulder at you again

The top-down gaze has a more dominant and strong connotation.

A low angle makes people's legs look longer

Photography Tips:

Use a small ladder to stand taller than the model and shoot from above for more creative portraits

So, you and I understood what a portrait is and learned the determining factors that will allow us to take not just a portrait, but a real artistic photograph. One of the pillars on which not only a portrait rests, but the entire photograph as a whole is, of course, composition. This is what we will talk about in this lesson.

From an ordinary photo to an ideal composition

If you and I take an average portrait photograph from the Internet, it will look approximately like this:

Now let's try to analyze it.

Our gaze “walks” through the photograph without finding the main subject. From a logical point of view, it should be clear that this is a person, but the gaze does not catch on to him. There are a lot of details that interrupt the logic of the view, chaotic perception arises, and... you simply scroll through the photo further, instantly forgetting about it.

Why is this happening? The reasons for this framing come from compact cameras: A person looks at the screen and focuses the image, usually on the machine in the center. At the same time, we get a lot of unnecessary uninformative space on the sides and top, which, as a rule, does not carry any semantic load.

In any photograph, including a portrait, there must be semantic centers that attract a person’s gaze to themselves. In a composition, these areas of greatest visual interest are determined by the classic rule of thirds and are found at the intersection of certain lines (see diagram below):

You can also place the semantic center or subject of shooting on the line itself; this will also not be wrong and will look organic and impressive. Let's look at the simplest example. Let's compare two photographs of the same person that I took in the studio:

Agree, the second example looks much more interesting due to the fact that the face (the main semantic center of the portrait) is located just above the center, on the line according to the rule of thirds. This made the image more organic. Please note that we removed excess “air” above the head and on the sides, but still left some of it in the image so that the eye would not be cramped when studying the image. In addition, we are in to a greater extent included in the second example the hands that balanced general composition picture.

Here's another example of the rule of thirds.

The romantic newlywed couple is positioned to the right on an imaginary grid line, with their faces almost at the intersection of the lines, creating the perfect visual accent. The composition is balanced by a part of the ship standing on the pier - the eye studies its details, the fence posts, but invariably returns to the main characters of the photo. This photo is a stepping stone to next question which we will consider.

View direction

Any portrait should have a sense of direction. This can be achieved by leaving more space in front of the subject and less space behind it. Why is that? This placement of the subject gives us a sense of movement and shows its direction.

In the photo below you see a portrait of a mime girl in which the above rule works. The girl looks to the side; space is left in the frame, thanks to which we can follow her gaze and avoid staticity. Here we can observe how the L-shaped composition works (see the section “Triangular Composition”) - the hat, head and torso of the mime, when moving into the hands, actually form the English letter L.

How much space to leave in the back is largely a matter of taste and experience. But even if you have a composition in mind where your subject is almost in the center of the frame, always leave space for his gaze.

Our gaze always studies a photograph along one trajectory - from the lower left corner to the upper right. You can verify this by taking any glossy magazine and looking at the photographs that are presented in it. Keep this in mind when creating the composition of your photos!

Triangular composition

The most common portrait composition is based on a triangle. It is not difficult to notice this, especially in individual portraits - the head serves as the top of the triangle, and the shoulders are its base. When used correctly, the arms can also be included in the triangle.

In addition, the triangle rule also applies to group portraits: the tallest person is located in the center, and the height of the rest decreases towards the edges of the frame.

There are also other figures in the construction of the frame: for example, in the form of the letters C, V, T, L and S.

In what cases can you use oblique frame orientation?

Very often, novice photographers, seeing how someone composes a shot using camera tilt, are imbued with respect for the technique and begin to do the same, without really thinking about the reasons for such a frame construction. Meanwhile, the purpose of an oblique composition is to add more dynamics to the photo, enhancing the effect of movement. Static poses in an inclined version sometimes do not look very advantageous; it seems that the characters are falling, propping up the walls.

Below is an example of a successful use of an oblique composition - the resulting diagonal allows the eye to effectively slide from below, past the crowd of fans to the brightly lit singer and her emotionally raised hand, making the frame look more alive.

Let's now look at the different types of portraits and learn how to use their main visual focal points.

Close-up portrait (shoulder-length)

Eyes are the mirror of the soul. Surely this phrase is familiar to everyone. When we look at a close-up portrait of a person, the eyes are the first thing we pay attention to. They are the most expressive part of the face, the main semantic center of the composition of such portraits. Therefore, according to the rules, we must frame the portrait in such a way that the eyes are on one of the grid lines according to the rule of thirds. For example, like this:

However, there is some nuance here. Very often you can find many beautiful portraits where the eyes are almost in the middle, but at the same time the photographs look beautiful and do not cause internal contradictions. Here you should rely on yourself, your inner intuition should work (we’ll talk to you about deviations from the rules below):

For eyes to attract even more attention, they must be sharp, so focusing in portraits is always based on the eyes. Be sure to keep an eye on this!

In close-up portraits, the composition can often be effectively complemented by using hands:

As can be seen from the example, the hands in this portrait are used as the lower base of the compositional triangle that we talked about earlier. As a result, the picture shows a logical and complete composition.

Don't use your hands thoughtlessly, just for the sake of having them in the frame. Remember that all the main attention in any case should be focused on the person’s gaze. If you're in doubt about whether to include your hands in the shot, it's best to leave them in.

The definition of framing a shoulder-length portrait is in its name - the face and the area just below the shoulders are in the frame. You shouldn't cut the shoulders right at the base of the frame; this kind of framing doesn't look the best.

Interesting fact!

When shooting a portrait at an open aperture (up to 4.0), you will get a more three-dimensional image and can effectively blur the background. Do not forget that it is more difficult to work with open apertures - pay special attention to the sharpness of your eyes!

Bust, waist and full-length portraits

The main visual center in these portraits is the person's face - this is where the main emphasis should be, and you should build the composition of the frame based on this fact.

When photographing a chest- or waist-length portrait, we include another important element- hands. We have already mentioned them when discussing a close-up portrait, however, in waist-length and full-length, the arms play a much larger role in the composition, and the final perception of your photograph will depend on how you position them.

Moreover, hands can play a major role in a portrait, enlivening a person’s pose and revealing some of his character traits.

What and how do we cut?

One of the most important questions: how can we frame the portrait so as not to accidentally cut off anything unnecessary? Let's figure it out.

A full-length portrait can be cropped just above chest level, leaving space above the person's head and on both sides.

A half-length portrait (or ¾ portrait) can be cropped at hip level, also leaving a little space above the model's head and on the sides. A similar use of free space applies to full-length portraits. The only caveat is that in full-length portraits, according to the rules, there should be a little more space at the top than at the bottom.

You should not cut the figure at the joints: exactly at waist level, at the knees, at the calves. The same with the hands: you should not cut your hands at the elbows and hands. Enough frequently asked question- Is it possible to “cut” a head in the frame? Yes, this can be done in order to create an optimal composition, but be careful not to leave unnecessary details at the edge of the frame.

Balancing the composition

If, when shooting close-up portraits outdoors, you and I can use an open aperture and effectively blur the background, then it is more difficult to do this when shooting waist-length and full-length people. By placing people on lines according to the rule of thirds, you can create a lot of empty space, which you want to balance. It could be anything - pillars, columns, trees, people passing by, various shadows. The main thing is that your photo takes on an interesting and finished look.

Below is an example of using perspective to balance composition in a full-length portrait. Our gaze begins with an acquaintance with the heroes of the photograph and follows further, to the end of the path, along the way studying the lines of trees and stripes of light. Thus, we got a romantic and voluminous photo.

Group portrait

As already stated above, classic scheme The alignment of group portraits is based on a triangle, when the tallest person is in the center, and the rest are lined up on both sides of him.

However, as doctors say, cases are different, and you and I can use other interesting compositional solutions. For example, as you can see in the photo below, a version of the V-shaped composition was used: the characters are arranged in height from top to bottom, and I decided to sit one of the participants on the floor. It turned out somewhat unexpectedly, but the character did not get lost as a result, and the frame as a whole began to look more interesting.

Shooting point and rule violations

We are coming to the logical conclusion of our lesson and, of course, all the most delicious things are prepared for dessert. It was not for nothing that I started this lesson with the rules, definitions and subtleties of “how to do it.” Because in order to break the rules, you need to know them. No experienced photographer or artist bends the rules without reason.

Art (and we are talking about portraits as art) does not imply stereotypes, otherwise, day after day, year after year, we would see the same thing in albums and on the Internet. After reading these lines, your intuition and vision will not immediately develop, but the more you photograph and get used to it, the more you will feel the desire to experiment.

The title to this section contains the phrase “shooting point.” At first I wanted to talk about certain standards, but after thinking about it, I decided that the shooting point is the most common field of experimentation among photographers.

Judge for yourself. The “standard” point for shooting a close-up portrait is at nose level; chest - at neck level; waist and height - at chest level. But! You and I can photograph a portrait from higher points, and in the right cases this will not be wrong, but how often can you see a photographer shooting a model from the floor? And this method, by the way, is used by many “fashionable” photographers - by shooting a model in this way using a wide angle, you can lengthen her legs in the frame, which will give an impressive effect.

By the way, high points Shooting and using a wide angle is very effective when shooting group portraits - the resulting distortion focuses attention on the faces (which is what we want!) and distracts attention from the background.

The following example illustrates not only an imperfect composition, but also a successfully captured moment. Calming his mischievous daughter, dad turned away from the camera, and I caught the girl’s sly look and pressed the shutter button. The look turned out to be in the center, but, nevertheless, we still got a great photo - lively and interesting.