ANGRY MAN

minicoop1985 · Jun 11, 2014

I've been continuing this self portrait thing (same shirt even!). I took some advice offered here with posing (expression... well...) and shutter speed, and added a few things of my own. Swapped chair for a stool (forces me to sit in a better pose, I've found), replaced the bulb in my softbox with something WAY more powerful, and because half my face was being swallowed by black and making me look like some sort of serial killer, added a reflector. How did I do? Is this an improvement? The new bulb seems to help with white balance too.

ANGRY MAN by longm1985, on Flickr

mmaria · Jun 11, 2014

c'mon, you're not angry... you just pretend. Right?

posing is much better, but I can't give you a valid cc because I'm viewing this on a crappy computer at work. we'll see what others will say

robbins.photo · Jun 11, 2014

I love it! It just sort of says, "Ya, I'm sitting on a tack. So what tough guy. What are you going to do about it!"

Lol

IzzieK · Jun 11, 2014

Like the other one, Michael...even though it was a girlie shot. I don't like "toughie" look tho this one looks good. YOu got a good cooperative model there...hard to find.:mrgreen:

minicoop1985 · Jun 11, 2014

robbins.photo said:
I love it! It just sort of says, "Ya, I'm sitting on a tack. So what tough guy. What are you going to do about it!"

Lol

I couldn't find the damn bayonet, otherwise I'd have done that too. I WILL FIND IT.

Izzie, I had to laugh at "toughie look." I was honestly just bored with the little smile thing and was goofing around. Ironically, that was the best posture of the bunch... :lol:

Reminds me of the guys on the targets we shot at in school (Firearms class for Criminal Justice).

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Going to continue working on this when I get an opportunity.

Also, around here, I will never make money as a portrait photographer because I refuse to make people look like plastic. That's what people pay for in this area. I'm not kidding, and I wish I was... That being said, I'm being roped in to taking headshots for my dad's law firm. He caught wind of my experiments here and decided they need new headshots. Oh boy. THANKFULLY, they have a makeup artist that they work with, but the photographer they used retired. Basically, I gotta figure out how to do this before I go and do it. :lol:

IzzieK · Jun 11, 2014

Now that you mentioned it, I'd like to see you shoot (and post) some Shutter Speed shots at your target practice...will be interesting to say the least. Please....

minicoop1985 · Jun 11, 2014

If I still had any guns, I would gladly. If you look in my signature, I have a blog about having bipolar disorder. Because of the lows, I've had a long history of suicidal ideations and attempts, so it's prooobably best I don't have weapons around until I have a track record of NOT trying to kill myself. But if I did, I would love to get video of exploding targets with something other than a Kodak point and shoot or try and get some muzzle blast shots.

kundalini · Jun 11, 2014

Side lighting has a natural tendency for a more sinister look. Assuming the reflector is opposite the Main (reflection in your right eye was another clue), I think it caught too much light for the shadow side. A greater ratio from lit side to shadow side will increase the effect of Angry Man. Not an exceptional example, but HERE is what I mean.

The stool is an excellent choice for consistent distance from the focal plane and ease of running back and forth from posing position to chimping the LCD display*. I also use a heavy duty foam block (shipping material) measuring 8x12x15" to rest a foot on. Most portrait photographers will refer to an apple crate to accomplish the same thing. It's used as an aide to help create dynamic posing.

In case you're not confident about lighting positions, HERE is a diagram for a two light with reflector setup. If you are using a halogen for an accent light, you can use something like Cinefoil to create a snoot. It's black to prevent light spill and several times the rigidity of heavy-duty aluminum foil.

Good stuff you're doing, keep at it.

* If you have an interval timer on your camera, make use of it for self portraits. Get your lighting setup first, then use the timer so that you don't have to get up and down for every shot. I set a two second interval and this lets me slightly tweak expressions and posing positions.

minicoop1985 · Jun 11, 2014

Holy wow, those lighting diagrams are a HUGE help. I bookmarked that. I don't have a lot of the other equipment YET, but there's definitely a bunch I can do with what I have now. Thanks! You've given me some AWESOME advice, and I really, really appreciate it.

For the snoot, I might use another CFL or find an LED to prevent the whole burning the house down thing. :lol:

Or just replace the bulb in the little halogen thing (halogen spot light), which actually really helped things separate from the background as far as I can tell. I have a couple things that would make a perfect snoot for it, but not until I solve the whole heat problem....

CAP · Jun 11, 2014

Looks like he is constipated. :grumpy:

minicoop1985 · Jun 11, 2014

CAP said:
Looks like he is constipated.

Trust me. If you were anywhere near my bathroom vent about 20 minutes before I shot that...

minicoop1985 · Jun 12, 2014

Bad news. Did a session with the wife to practice making someone else pose. Would have been pretty decent, I feel, too. All film, black and white, Tri-X... dark bag wasn't sealed around my arm and when I adjusted, it got exposed and ruined EVERY portrait. Ugh.

I learned a few things, though. I have another dark bag I should really be using with double arm seals. Also, I did fairly well with the posing and lighting. Utilized some of those lighting diagrams, and they work. When I mentioned the snoot, I did get the LED spotlight halogeny replacementy thing bulb I was talking about, so I now have a MUUUUCH better snooted light. After that fiasco and my wife was in bed, despite feeling rather dejected and discouraged, set up all the lighting and did a self session. Too beat to edit now, but I'll put them up tomorrow to see if anything's improved. Thanks for the help so far everyone-there's a long road to go, but you've all helped me set the cruise control quite a lot faster.