Thursday, December 11, 2008

Who me?

Today I'm posting a self portrait because I seriously need to work with the strobist equipment I recently acquired if I'm ever going to figure it out. Since as a general rule I hate photos of myself (probably most folks do?) my goal with this exercise was simply to get an acceptable result using a three light set up. I used one strobe with an orange gel to light the background, one strobe high at 45% to my left into a white shoot through umbrella and one strobe even with my head at 45% to my right into a silver umbrella with a black back (so both forward strobes were reflected not shot through). I took the shot with my Canon 40D and Canon 100-400mm zoom lens using the 10 second timer at 1/250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100, 150mm. I plan on going into more specifics of the set up on tomorrows post (too late tonight already) but I would really appreciate hearing how you think I did with the placement of the lights.

Title: "Me"

9 comments:

Larry said...

Good job - I thought it was me! I like the choice of the orange background but not so much the light [I think] "in" your hairline. I would probably clone that out to maintain it's seamless appearance.

Barry Armer said...

Thanks Larry!

I did some very rough work (scaling and cloning) to simplify the background a little. I don't know why I stopped short of fixing the area at the top of my head. I guess it was getting late and my standards had to be relaxed before they adversely affected my bedtime! :-)

Cheers!
Barry

Larry J. Patrick said...

Title is wrong. That is not you. One of the things I enjoy most about you is your easy going manner and sly smile. I see neither. So, it is not you, but then again it might be "me."
Good lighting. I like the way the soft lighting falls over your face. The shadows on your face help create some depth in the photograph.
I think you nailed this one. Except you photographed the wrong subject.

Barry Armer said...

Thanks for your comments Patrick!

I'm afraid "easy going" was not possible with a 150mm focal length and a 10 sec timer! :-) I barely had time to wipe the moisture from my brow after the jog into position before the shutter fired! LOL

Cheers!
Barry

Jan Klier said...

Nice self portrait.

Because your background already separates well you probably could have skipped the hair light in this case.

Anonymous said...

I think you did a great job on the exposure. The object directly over your head should be removed. I'm assuming it's the light everyone else has alluded to.

I'm also distracted by the "shadow" around your left ear. I'm sure that is some of the late night cloning of the background you mentioned.

Anonymous said...

I like it alot too, but personally I'd like to see more light into your eyes. They look a little dark and ominous (or maybe it's your expression too). :-) But I really like the overall movement of light across your face.

Steve Schuenke

Barry Armer said...

Thanks Jan, Doug and Steve!

I plan on making more attempts at this over the weekend and I will try to incorporate all of your suggestions!

I really appreciate that you took the time to comment!

Cheers!
Barry

Brian Bastinelli said...

Barry,

I agree a with everyone a little here. I like the image, I'd clone the top, I think you should have smiled, hair light-well I'm glad you used it cause I don't even have one so if I did I'd probably use it...lol And your eyes could be a little lighter.

Now I only said this stuff because you asked. I am glad to see you have started playing around with this stuff. I haven't even ordered anything yet so good for you.

I am looking forward to seeing more.