A not too pleased attempt at Self Portrait :edited:

danalec99 · Oct 26, 2004

My intention was to have the reflection in the mirror, the frame of the mirror, and the lamp to be sharp. Not happy with the result. Will be doing more sessions till I get my desired result.

Love to hear what you think.
Thanks.

JonMikal · Oct 26, 2004

what i think? i think you look a bit like andy garcia in this posting.

as far as the sharpness of all objects, try a tighter f stop. if that doesnt work, focus on the mirror and lamp and photoshop a nice crisp image of yourself in the mirror. just my .02 worth.

Corry · Oct 26, 2004

One thing...I think the picture hanging on the wall behind you is distracting. I'd take it down for the photo. Keep it nice and simple. And I agree with the tighter crop. Move the lamp in closer to the mirror so you can still inlude it.

Corry · Oct 26, 2004

Upon rereading jonmikals post, he said tighter f-stop, not tighter crop...but I still think it needs a tighter crop!

danalec99 · Oct 26, 2004

jonmikal said:
focus on the mirror and lamp and photoshop a nice crisp image of yourself in the mirror.

Jonmikal, I would like to have the PhotoShop work for me rather than letting it create the photograph for me. I'm not suggesting that it is a sin

. Its just a personal preference.

I guess a higher f-stop and ample time would give me a sharper everything.

Thanks for the comments Jon and Corry.

terri · Oct 26, 2004

I would agree that the picture in the mirror should go, and a bit of a tighter crop - almost to where you look like you're the subject in the picture frame. I do like the lamp as part of the image.

A pity that van Gogh has to be booted out. :wink:

You won't hear that from me very often!

danalec99 · Oct 26, 2004

terri said:
I would agree that the picture in the mirror should go, and a bit of a tighter crop - almost to where you look like you're the subject in the picture frame. I do like the lamp as part of the image.

A pity that van Gogh has to be booted out. You won't hear that from me very often!

Does the van Gogh has to go if the photo title is not "Self Portrait?"

Karalee · Oct 26, 2004

I LOVE this idea Daniel! I agree with what they said about van gogh gettin the boot (

) and maybe if you could get the tripod a bit lower? So its not in the frame? Maybe set the self timer or something?

danalec99 · Oct 26, 2004

Thanks Kara. Points noted.

jadin · Oct 27, 2004

Love the retro pop art abstract you're going for. Works well. A tighter crop would lose that look me thinks.

Your views on photoshop are a bit misplaced in my personal opinion. What was suggested is a far cry from creating the photograph for you.

Just my humble opinion.

danalec99 · Oct 27, 2004

Thanks for the comments jadin

.

jadin said:
Your views on photoshop are a bit misplaced in my personal opinion. What was suggested is a far cry from creating the photograph for you.

I thought jonmikal was suggesting to "cut and paste" a picture of mine into the mirror. I'm not comfortable with that idea, unless I mistook his words! Did I? :?

jadin · Oct 27, 2004

Well yes and no. You'd be cutting and pasting a picture of you ... on top of a picture of you. So you'd take the photo exactly as you want it, adjust the focus to focus on you, then take the second photo moments later. Then in photoshop you'd just be combining the best of both photos, or at least the best focusing.

That'd be by far the easiest way to take the shot. Photoshop is a valuable tool for photographers in the digital age, what would've been done in the darkroom is now done on the keyboard. It's still photography, only you use different tools. The problem comes when ametuers (for the most part) go over board making digital creations that are so overly edited it makes us cring. But it doesn't make the tool the problem, just those who overly use / abuse it.

The editing jonmikal described falls into acceptable editing in my books. At least the way I understood it.

danalec99 · Oct 27, 2004

jadin said:
Well yes and no. You'd be cutting and pasting a picture of you ... on top of a picture of you. So you'd take the photo exactly as you want it, adjust the focus to focus on you, then take the second photo moments later. Then in photoshop you'd just be combining the best of both photos, or at least the best focusing.

That'd be by far the easiest way to take the shot. Photoshop is a valuable tool for photographers in the digital age, what would've been done in the darkroom is now done on the keyboard. It's still photography, only you use different tools. The problem comes when ametuers (for the most part) go over board making digital creations that are so overly edited it makes us cring. But it doesn't make the tool the problem, just those who overly use / abuse it.

The editing jonmikal described falls into acceptable editing in my books. At least the way I understood it.

I see what you mean and I agree with the over edited works of some.

Photoshop is a beautiful tool and I also mentioned that cut-paste is not a sin. It is just not my preference, may be I should say, at the moment. I do not know yet!
Every photographer's wish is to create a fine photograph, and the means to achieve the perfection he/she wants could be many. I just prefer to do the maximum work with the camera and some fine tuning with the Photoshop. Like I said, at the moment!