Looking for C&C on a self portrait.

[Nikon_Dude]

Personally I wish the focus had been sharper on the whole face instead of just the left side.

 

[IgsEMT]

Personally I wish the focus had been sharper on the whole face instead of just the left side.

reshoot it.

 

[Nikon_Dude]

Haha I might. Any tips on how to achieve that with a self portrait? I had a few minutes and was pretty much shooting blind and then checking how it looked since I was holding the camera in my hand.

 

[bigtwinky]

Set camera on tripod, mark the floor where you would stand.
Put some sort of dummy there (doll, broom, whatever) that will allow you to focus the camera. Then remove the dummy and stand in its place.

You should have decent focus

 

[Pugs]

Set camera on tripod, mark the floor where you would stand.
Put some sort of dummy there (doll, broom, whatever) that will allow you to focus the camera. Then remove the dummy and stand in its place.

You should have decent focus

Good advice on how to re-shoot it here!

Also, it's under-exposed by a stop or so.

 

[kundalini]

The hair on the left eye does distract and makes it a bit..... weird. Your main light seems a bit too far to the right, noticing the shadow on models left under chin. I'd like to see a smidgen less white underneath the corona......... or a touch more with the chin dropped (for a more dastardly look). I like the light fall off.

 

[Nikon_Dude]

The hair on the left eye does distract and makes it a bit..... weird. Your main light seems a bit too far to the right, noticing the shadow on models left under chin. I'd like to see a smidgen less white underneath the corona......... or a touch more with the chin dropped (for a more dastardly look). I like the light fall off.

There was actually no main light haha I shot this in complete darkness bouncing my flash off the ceiling. Threw a blanket over my door for the dark background.

I agree with you that it would be better without the hair over my eye.

I think if I do get a chance to reshoot I will take your guys' advice and try using my tripod. Question about that though: Say I focus on a broom or whatever, then hit the shutter on timer and stand in its place, will the camera be focused on the spot the broom was or is that just to find the area to focus on and will I have to stand there and hit the shutter after the I'm in position to have it focus on me?

 

[bazooka]

Use manual focus so it doesn't change.

 

[Casshew]

I like what you are wearing for the b & w, pic, it's going to look awesome once you get the focus right.

 

[Nikon_Dude]

Yeah I was gonna wear that anyways then I thought Hey this would look good in a B&W pic.

 

[Shockey]

Very underexposed, if it wasn't you would see major racoon eyes. Need something to get some light into the eyes.
I like the composition of the shot.
Focus is close enough.

 

[SrBiscuit]

try a higher aperature so your DOF is deeper.

 

[Nikon_Dude]

Biscuit I've actually thought about that too. I looked back at it and I only used 1.8 aperture.

I should have probably used slower shutter speed and higher f stop. And the focus stuff mentioned earlier. All things to keep in mind for next time.

 

[Dominantly]

I did something like this earlier:
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...playing-lighting-portrait-you-like-no-oh.html

What I did was I set the camera up and took into account where the focus point was hitting in the background, then placed myself there and hit the shutter with a remote.
Like mentioned, using something like f/8-f/11 will give you deeper DOF and allow for some errors. I would also say you could try and hit a high numerical f/stop and hit yourself with the flash off camera, maybe at a 45 degree angle, or even a sidelight, to give you some more dramatic shadow.

 

[Nikon_Dude]

Thanks for the tip. I'm currently considering getting another flash so I can use it off camera as well. I have an sb-400 and I don't believe it can fire off camera. Should probably invest in a remote as well.