So you might be asking yourself. What is this that post title. Well the new flash part is simple. I'd recently bought a new SB-800 flash and I was playing with that and my SB-600. Now the self-portrait bit probably needs a little more explanation. It started with my reading of a book called "Digital Portrait Photography and Lighting". A pretty good read but maybe a little general for me ;in all fairness I haven't finished it yet as I like to jump around while reading my photo books. So in this book it suggests and goes to say that doing self-portrait is a great tool for learning with practice. It will also give you an idea what a model/client will be faced with and maybe help you develop some ways to make them more comfortable and natural looking during the shoot.
It all seems to make sense so I setup my make shift studio at home like I've done a few times. Really just a white back drop (Do it yourself) a light stand with shoot-through umbrella. My Nikon D80 with a few lenses and now a SB-800 and SB-600.
Now one thing I was finding with this is that I didn't have a bunch of room to work after I got the backdrop setup. I decided to use my 50 f1.8 as it's not too long (75mm). It went pretty well but I found the model (me) didn't have many facial expressions that didn't look silly or down-right ridiculous; hence the serious looks. Some of my friends had some not so nice things to say about my facial expressions but I think they need to open up. Another I noticed was how hard it was to focus. I was trying to keep it on manual focus. I was using a 2-second timer with the remote. Something I should test is whether it acquires focus when the timer/remote is used or if using the focus it had previously. I also need to use a smaller aperture (F8 to F11) to get more DOF.
Was trying some things with Broad and short lighting. I was also trying to get some side lighting (bring out the detail/texture a subject) without much success. One thing I need to learn to see and use is subtlety. I also need to work more with and control my backgrounds in a studio like setting.
In the third and fifth photo's you will see a sepia type effect that I have been liking a lot as of late. I will be making another post regarding that shortly.
I did get some quick shots of my roomate and her sister after this. It was much easier but since I didn't ask I won't post those here.
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1 comment:
Hey1 well done, Self Portraits are soo hard to do...I think so anyway, still haven't managed to work up the guts to do one of my own. In the first two I don't recognise you at all. The third is much more natural and by far my favourite. In the last one you look down right scary ;)
nice job on the lighting in the last three.
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