First attempt at self portraits

Pixel perfection

Pixel perfection

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Name
Thomas
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This evening I have tried out some self portrait work. The way I created this image was using off camera flash at the 4-5 oclock position. I used a bare flash head. the flash was zoomed in to 200mm which gave me a narrow beam of light. The way I fired the camera was with a remote trigger which is under my folded arms. I did not meter the flash as I current do not have one. It was just a case of trial and error. The way I got the image to focus. I put a dry bag over a light stand. This was level with my head. I used this as a referance point to focus on then turn the camera to manual focus.
All in all I am very happy with the final out come after a bit of PP in Lightroom.

Please like and share if you like my work


Excuse the mess! This was my set up in a very small space.

17425916_1409535382499333_6237672027041407576_n.jpg



These are the results.

Informal
17424619_1409583522494519_3372479017035409882_n.jpg


Formal
17359411_1409574339162104_5945627619356746209_o.jpg


Creative
17389049_1409576409161897_4166050033988040781_o.jpg
 
I'm sorry to say that these don't work for me.... but don't give up...

I'm no expert but, the shadows are far too harsh (yes i know this can be a good thing, but i feel they dont work) and you are lost in that crushed black background and the white balance is off.
The focus also seems a bit off, something weird going on, could be something you did in post?

Too much space around you, i would choose a different crop to make the best of these and i won't mention the selective colour......

Please don't be offended by my comments, selfies with tripods and ocf are tough.... like i say though, i would try a different crop and back off the pp
 
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Agree with Dan above about the selective colour, now you've done it, you can tick it off the list and move on ;).

Think about your pose, you are a para and your pose looks a little "wussy". More square on would be better imo. I'm less troubled about the space and the shadows, with a better pose the shadows may well work ok - as it is not quite so.

The PP is too much as well and agree with Dan about that and the focus, needs a more subtle touch imo.
 
Not bad at all.. try getting the light a little higher next time. When shadows are this harsh a slight change of their position of them makes a huge difference to the outcome. It would probably work better if the nose shadow came a bit lower and joined up with the shadow on your right cheek.

I'd quite like to see the unprocessed images - your right side is getting a bit lost against the background and I think that's partly down to have you've processed the shot.
 
Many thanks for the feed back guys.
A question that I have. Does having a monitor that is up to the task make much of a difference with pp as I am only using a laptop that is about 5-6 years old.
I don't have a screen monitor calibrater. I turn the brightness down and do my pp as my images were coming out dark after I'd pp them in the past.
All the feedback is much appreciated
Many thanks
 
Deleted since it was not helpful.
 
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Pixel perfection said:
Many thanks for the feed back guys.
A question that I have. Does having a monitor that is up to the task make much of a difference with pp as I am only using a laptop that is about 5-6 years old.
I don't have a screen monitor calibrater. I turn the brightness down and do my pp as my images were coming out dark after I'd pp them in the past.
All the feedback is much appreciated
Many thanks
Click to expand...

Yes, hugely. Turning the brightness down is a good start, and if you don't have anything else then the tool built in to windows can help - go to Control Panel | Calibrate Display Colour - but that tends to make things a little too bright for printing.

Room lighting has a big effect, too. Try to process your images under consistent lighting.
 
Ok, as a viewer (rather than a very amateur photographer), I like aspects of this. And there are other things which personally, I'd prefer changed... but it depends on what you were trying to achieve.

+ I really like the hard light on the uniform, as well as the hard fall-off to shadow/background...
- but not on the face (for me, personally)

The hardness of the uniform makes it look crisp and pristine, which feels "right". But the hard shadow lines on the face distract and feel less natural.

Another experiment might be to have two lights - one for the face: soft - and one for the body - hard. It's more work and requires a fair bit of experimentation, but just my thoughts. Not even sure if you have two strobes anyway!
 
No probs.

Also, think about the camera placement vertically. It feels as if you're eye level with you (subject) but if you wanted a more commanding image, lowering the camera a little so you're looking slightly down might help. Don't go too far, but worth a try.
 
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