I've been doing self-portraits occasionally ever since I took a street photography workshop from Craig Tanner (Radiant Vista back then but now called The Mindful Eye) a couple years ago. Craig made it an assignment to do a self-portrait each night of the workshop which we had to share with the other participants and I learned to appreciate how difficult they are to do and how much you can learn from the process. Try it yourself and see how hard it is to take a shot you are completely satisfied with. I'm not completely satisfied with this one but it's the best I could do in the one hour I allotted myself. :-)
Title: "Me - April 2010"
Shot data: 1/200s f/8.0 at 105.0mm iso200
Camera / Lens: Canon 5D Mark II / Canon 24-105mm L zoom
Lighting: Alien Bee 400 to camera left w/ 10% grid, Alien Bee 800 with silver umbrella to camera right
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin > Nik Viveza plugin
5 comments:
I like this Barry. Very gritty and nice job on the lighting. I'm amazed at what you are doing with your self portraits. They are pretty cool.
I'm thrown off a little by the right eye being so bright, along with the area of skin located just above the eye and below the frame of your glasses. The left eye and light on that side seems most prominent and should demand most of my attention. I keep getting pulled to the bright white of your right eye. I'm sure it's just spillover.
I've sent a photo of what I think would help this shot. Just a thought.
Thanks Doug!
The subtle change you made perfectly reversed a bit of brightening I did around that eye using Nik Viveza! Apparently what I did to "enhance the photo" was exactly what "threw you off"! Looking at it again, I think that you are correct that the enhancement wasn't an improvement at all. I'm amazed that you picked up on the change because to my eye the original alteration I made was very subtle. Oh well...live and learn! :-)
Cheers!
Barry
I'm glad you told me how you did it. I was trying to figure out how it made it to that part of your face so selectively! Nice photo either way.
Barry, I have never seen you look like this. In fact, when I think of Barry Armer, I think of a guy who has a great smile and sense of humor. I do like your lighting a lot.
Thanks Patrick!
My inspiration for this shot was a recent Time magazine cover of Steve Jobs. I loved the photographer's lighting in that shot and was doing my best to duplicate it; I didn't succeed but I got close and learned a lot in the process of trying.
Cheers!
Barry
Post a Comment