Self-portrait (C & C)

Joshonator · Jul 14, 2012

I would mostly like feedback regarding the lighting in this shot, do you think using a fill flash would have improved the shot? Or would it have removed depth? Do you agree or disagree with cutting off the top of the head for framing? Can you think of a specific edit that could be done to improve the piece?

Me by Joshonator, on Flickr

PinkDoor · Jul 14, 2012

Too warm, eh?

PinkDoor · Jul 14, 2012

Sorry, that was my "Canadian accent" critique

TheKenTurner · Jul 14, 2012

PinkDoor said:
Sorry, that was my "Canadian accent" critique

Hey! I take great offense to that

now I won't be back to reply because I'll be oot and aboot.

-Ken Turner

TheKenTurner · Jul 14, 2012

Anyway, I would have used portrait to eliminate the empty space on the sides, and get your whole head. Also, I would have added a tiny amount of light on the darker side of your face. Enough to make the shadows a bit lighter, but still have a shadow there.

-Ken Turner

JoshuaSimPhotography · Jul 15, 2012

I actually quite like it. WHen doing portraits you don't have to show the whole head. It actually draws more attention to the face. And I quite like the warmness and lighting here too. SO job well done, a few things I would fix up too. You should use this as your avatar.

Joshonator · Jul 15, 2012

Thanks Joshua, the warmness was indeed intentional. You mentioned a few things you would fix, what would those be?

JoshuaSimPhotography · Jul 15, 2012

Lets see, I agree with Ken. You are obviously smiling here so you are telling a "happy" story. So you should add a bit more light to make it a bit more vibrant (if u see my latest thread its a self portrait, I'm not smiling and the pic is very dark). And perhaps you could have a simpler background with one tone only. But I really love it! Nice Job! Josh's FTW!

The_Traveler · Jul 15, 2012

You are at the stage where you are asking for technical response and you would get more useful feedback if you allowed editing.

TheKenTurner · Jul 15, 2012

Looking at this photo again, here's what I think it looks like. I think it looks like you have a table with a window right beside it and thought "hey! I'm gonna take a picture of myself!" so you put the tripod on the table with a 50mm (probably 1.8 ) lens on your camera and went as far away as you could while still being able to hit the shutter button.

I know you only asked for lighting/crop, but I think they both kind of make the photo look random, and not a portrait you took "seriously". I'm mentioning this because it doesn't look like an area where you would be taking professional portraits of you or anyone else. You might want to find out exactly where you're going to take the photos THEN worry about lighting/crop.

I noticed that you have a T1i, so I assume you should have a couple years of experience with it, and should know some simple things.

Sorry, this post is kind of a mess.

-Ken Turner

Joshonator · Jul 15, 2012

Editing has been allowed

Josh's ftw xD it was taken with a 55mm 1.4 with a wireless trigger. While this portrait was pretty much random it's purpose was more to experiment with a flash than to produce a printworthy image since I have practically no experience with portraits or flash. In the end I liked this shot more than any of the ones where I actually used the flash and I'm trying to figure out what the optimal lighting set up would be, and why a shot with the top of the head cut off looks more interesting to me than a full shoulder shot. Therefore I'm not really worried about the background at this point, that's an easy factor to change, what isn't easy is getting a natural looking shot with an external flash for me anyway. You can think of this as a practise shot.