Thursday, February 12, 2009

Me!

Sorry but I'm practicing self-portraits again! I promise not to go crazy posting them (like I did with the pots) but every once in a while I feel the need to practice them in order to try and learn a little more about lighting and using my flash equipment and post-processing portraits. Please bear with me! Any suggestions for improvement would be highly appreciated!



Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom lens

6 comments:

Larry said...

Nice shot. Did you use your soft box or your Stobist approach?

Barry Armer said...

Thanks Larry!

I used my homemade beauty dish and Canon 430 flash. If I remember correctly it was set on 1/4 power about 4 feet away. Camera settings: 55mm, f/7.1, 1/250th, ISO 200.

Cheers!
Barry

Anonymous said...

I like the lighting here. I think the overall portrait would have been slightly improved if you had been looking straight at the lens. Right now there does not seem to be that much connection between the subject (you) and the camera man (you) or the ultimate audience. Good job.

Barry Armer said...

Thanks for your comment Anon!

I agree with you about looking straight at the lens!

Cheers!
Barry

Anonymous said...

I'm not an expert on portraits and you are definitely more willing to experiment on yourself than I am. Self portraits have to be one of the most difficult tasks to do well.

Given that, I think you needed some fill light on the right side of your face, whether a reflector or another flash. You obviously cannot increase the output on the flash or you will wash out the subject (you). Maybe shooting Larry P's D3 would keep it from happening with its low noise capabilities, but pretty much any camera will experience this when there is so much light fall off beyond the area of flash. There is noise on the right side that shadows your face from top to bottom.

I usually see this on monitors that are not calibrated, set too dark or not color managed. I don't believe that fits in my case as it is calibrated. I have some shots that exhibit this same noise when I have exceeded the range or output of the flash.

It's distracting from the photo, or at least it distracts me. If it wasn't for that it would be a nice shot.

DHaass

Larry J. Patrick said...

I have no idea why the comment about looking straight at the lens did not show my name, but it did not. It was me, again.