Self Portrait C&C Please

[TylerF]

Bored late at night. Please ignore my ugly mug. This is also my first shot with my new 55-200. I love it haha. I think this may be a bit dark.

 

[JeffieLove]

It looks a little soft as well as a little dark (which you mentioned)... The earrings are a little bit distracting as well... They are the only bright thing in the frame...

 

[TylerF]

thank you, its hard to focus on something then run to that exact spot in 10 seconds haha. That's probably partly why its soft. I think I'm going to retry the shot now lol. the earings are too shiny haha

 

[JeffieLove]

That probably is it... the whole running back and forth thing...

Self portraits are easier to do if you have a remote shutter release for the camera... You can actually get them pretty inexpensive and they still work fine...

This is the one I have... It works for my canon, not sure if it would do much for you nikon though :/

RSRT04EOSP Adorama Wireless Radio Remote Release for Canon EOS Rebel XT/XTI/XSi/T1i, Pentax K10D/K100D, Contax 645 and Hasselblad H Series Cameras (2.5 Mini Plug)

 

[TylerF]

yeah i thought about one, but idealy, i hope to be doing portraits of others, but at the moment, i only have myself to practice with haha just did this one,

 

[JeffieLove]

haha you're gonna hate me! lol

I liked the look of your face in the first one... A little bit of a smile...

However, this one your eyes look more in focus and the earrings are quite as bright and distracting

 

[TylerF]

hahah i thought the SAME exact thing! but hey, its not like it's a portfolio shot, I'm just trying to get some decent lighting. tomorrow when there's some available light, i will try again, I bought a cheap cheap car windshield reflector and was trying it out haha. I plan on buying real reflectors soon though

 

[TylerF]

Any other thoughts?

 

[KmH]

Racoon eyes.

There is not enough light in your eye sockets and the focus needs to be dead on the eye closest to the camera.

 

[TylerF]

Thank you. I am going to retry it with some more light and post back with results

 

[Noonz]

I really like it, very well done. What was your setup? Did you use a flash?

 

[TylerF]

Thanks! I used my sb600 on camera pointed upwards and held a car windshield reflector thing below my face haha. Kinda ghetto. I'm getting more legitimate stuff soon though!

 

[Felix0890]

I love taking self-portraits (just look at my avatar ) and always found the focusing to be the worst part. So I got on amazon and purchased an off-brand remote control for my camera which made self portraits and family shots so much better.

The remote allows you to use autofocus which is more reliable than guessing. No, you're not going to get locked on focus on the eyes unless you position yourself exactly right but you can just have a big depth of field by keeping the aperture small which will give you more to work with. If anything, just do some sharpening and masking to get the eyes sharper than the face.

Tip:If you're going to take a self-portrait with you to the side of the image, just set the focus point on the camera before you get in position.

The remote I bought was [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Opteka-RC-4-Wireless-Control-Replacement/dp/B0019RGQVU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1269373702&sr=8-1"]Amazon.com: Opteka RC-4 Wireless Remote Control for Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, XTi, XSi, T1i, T2i, 7D & 5D Mark II Digital SLR Cameras (Canon RC-1 Replacement): Electronics[/ame]

There are better ones but that one worked fine for me.

 

[TylerF]

tried to remove the raccoon eyes