Self Portrait trying out my new lighting gear.

[shefjr]

I recently purchased some portrait gear for my nieces up and coming prom. Nothing fancy or costly. The problem is the only willing person to practice on was myself. :sigh: I hate taking photos of myself.

How I did it,
1. a flash placed on the floor four feet in front of my with a soft box on it.
2. a second flash on a stand with a umbrella directly behind the camera which was about five feet away from me.
3. the camera on a tripod with a remote shutter release.
50mm 1.8, ISO 100, 1/250 shutter speed, aperture f2.5

Any comments on how I could improve my photos (other than putting a pretty lady in it instead of me) would be really helpful.

Thank you!

1.
Self-Portrait-with-ball-cap by Shefjr, on Flickr

2.
Self-Portrait-w-hooker-dune by Shefjr, on Flickr

3.
Self-Portrait-with-cowboy-h by Shefjr, on Flickr

 

[kundalini]

How I did it,
1. a flash placed on the floor four feet in front of my with a soft box on it.
2. a second flash on a stand with a umbrella directly behind the camera which was about five feet away from me.
3. the camera on a tripod with a remote shutter release.
50mm 1.8, ISO 100, 1/250 shutter speed, aperture f2.5

I'd suggest to drop the power output on your Fill light (behind camera) and possibly shifting it slightly towards the Main light (~6" or so). A reasonable lighting ratio is 3:1.

Find a better background.

Nice lids.

 

[shefjr]

How I did it,
1. a flash placed on the floor four feet in front of my with a soft box on it.
2. a second flash on a stand with a umbrella directly behind the camera which was about five feet away from me.
3. the camera on a tripod with a remote shutter release.
50mm 1.8, ISO 100, 1/250 shutter speed, aperture f2.5

I'd suggest to drop the power output on your Fill light (behind camera) and possibly shifting it slightly towards the Main light (~6" or so). A reasonable lighting ratio is 3:1.

Find a better background.

Nice lids.

May I ask why you would suggest the first sentence? I have no problem doing that. I would just like to learn why or what it is that you are looking for so I can recognize it myself in the future.
As for the background I knew it wasn't the best for this but, I only had about an hour to play before my wife came home so I literally through the set up together. That's the reason I did the hat dance. Just to some how change up what the photos looked like.

Thank you for looking and any additional comments you might help with.

 

[mommy-medic]

I'm digging the second one, but I think I agree with lowering the power or moving them further away. Look in the second one at the shadow cast by your finger- powering down the light or allowing it more room to be diffused will make that less harsh. The shadow itself isn't harsh, but it does have an outline, not just a hint of shadow/soft fade. At least that what my uneducated eye sees- someone with some serious studio experience will probably tear my input to shreds, but eh- I'll learn from that right along with you.

 

[shefjr]

I'm digging the second one, but I think I agree with lowering the power or moving them further away. Look in the second one at the shadow cast by your finger- powering down the light or allowing it more room to be diffused will make that less harsh. The shadow itself isn't harsh, but it does have an outline, not just a hint of shadow/soft fade. At least that what my uneducated eye sees- someone with some serious studio experience will probably tear my input to shreds, but eh- I'll learn from that right along with you.

I see what you're talking about with the shadow now that you point it out. I guess I expected it to have somewhat of a shadow there but, I don't do portrait photography so I don't know. I have a lot to learn for a hobby. Im hoping someone with some studio time will give me some more input. I put up several threads yesterday with little response. I'm assuming my photos have either too much to c+c, boring, or maybe some think that I have illusions of trying to get paid in some way. (which I do not ever) for now I'll keep reading and playing. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Designer]

#1 appears that your eyes are not the point of focus, but rather the cap bill.
#2 your eyes are in focus, probably due to the shorter bill on cap #2.
#3 same focus problem as in #1

overall; next time find a less busy background, follow lighting tips given by kundalini, and if you want to wear headgear, prefocus on your eyes or have someone help with that by checking and then locking the focus.

personally, I think men need low key lighting rather than high key. Also, frame in portrait format unless you are including something else in the fram that requires landscape.

 

[kundalini]

May I ask why you would suggest the first sentence? I have no problem doing that. I would just like to learn why or what it is that you are looking for so I can recognize it myself in the future.

In portraiture, shadows are our friends. It provides the illusion of the third dimension on an otherwise flat image. Your particular setup has what is known as 'flat' lighting, meaning there is no transition from the Main light on the subject. It also looks as if you have the Main light coming from below. BTW, I'm refering to your Main light as #1 (camera left) in your description and the Fill light as #2 (behind camera). I thnk you'll also find that having the Main light above the subject and project downward, the results will be more pleasing. Uplighting generally gives that horror movie effect.

To reduce the learning curve on lighting, find an inanimate object and practice various lighting patterns on it. Using people in the learning phase will become tiring for your subjects. Better to bore the hell out of an egg than your significant other. Then when you want to shoot the SO, you are better prepared to know where to place your lights and a base of power output, tweak as required.

Here is some information on basic light patterns. Tutorial: Basic Light Patterns I encourage you to navigate the rest of the article because there is some very useful information.

Good luck.

 

[shefjr]

#1 appears that your eyes are not the point of focus, but rather the cap bill.
#2 your eyes are in focus, probably due to the shorter bill on cap #2.
#3 same focus problem as in #1

overall; next time find a less busy background, follow lighting tips given by kundalini, and if you want to wear headgear, prefocus on your eyes or have someone help with that by checking and then locking the focus.

personally, I think men need low key lighting rather than high key. Also, frame in portrait format unless you are including something else in the fram that requires landscape.

You are completely right about the focus now that you point it out. I even think that the focus in number 2 is off as well. I don't have that eye yet where I look at the important stuff like focus. LOL! I agree about the background being too busy. As stated earlier in a hurry to test out the new flashes that I had purchased so I literally threw everything up quickly took a few shots and had to clean up because of company coming over. (an hour of shooting in total) I was going to try and focus prior to taking any photos but, I wasn't sure I would be in focus since I was (and I'll probably say this wrong) using an aperture of 2 or so which I'm thinking means that I had a very limited focal plane. (again I'm sure that is not how it should be said)
I didn't know what low key lighting was so I searched it on google and Holy Crap!!! I'm going to have so much fun playing! Had you not said low key lighting I probably would never have known what that was! So thank you! I am finding what is good about photography for me is that when I get frustrated with one type of photography I can switch gears and jump to something else. Anyway, thank you for your critique.
Oh! Duh! on my part about using landscape instead of portrait.

 

[shefjr]

May I ask why you would suggest the first sentence? I have no problem doing that. I would just like to learn why or what it is that you are looking for so I can recognize it myself in the future.

In portraiture, shadows are our friends. It provides the illusion of the third dimension on an otherwise flat image. Your particular setup has what is known as 'flat' lighting, meaning there is no transition from the Main light on the subject. It also looks as if you have the Main light coming from below. BTW, I'm refering to your Main light as #1 (camera left) in your description and the Fill light as #2 (behind camera). I thnk you'll also find that having the Main light above the subject and project downward, the results will be more pleasing. Uplighting generally gives that horror movie effect.

To reduce the learning curve on lighting, find an inanimate object and practice various lighting patterns on it. Using people in the learning phase will become tiring for your subjects. Better to bore the hell out of an egg than your significant other. Then when you want to shoot the SO, you are better prepared to know where to place your lights and a base of power output, tweak as required.

Here is some information on basic light patterns. Tutorial: Basic Light Patterns I encourage you to navigate the rest of the article because there is some very useful information.

Good luck.

I wasn't aware that there should be shadows in portraits. It makes sense though that is (obvious to me now) that shadows would bring out the features of an image. I know absolutely nothing about portrait lighting. I didn't plan on ever doing this type of photography ever since this is just a hobby for my. By happen stance, my sister in law asked my to take a few photos of her daughter before prom. She wanted point and shoot with a nice camera. I thought what a fun opportunity! So I started a thread on here (TPF) asking what I would need, which honestly I thought was going to be much simpler than it actually has become. And so here we are. lol.
I see what you are talking about with the horror movie effect. To be honest I was using the lower light (main light) to hide my double chin. ugh!

That is a great idea to use an inanimate object to start with. That is similar to art class where you draw a basic object like a pear. I think to help myself I may try and find something that has little shine, but a lot of shape to it so that I can really get the feel for shadows. You're right about the wife she wouldn't stand for it.

Thank you for the tutorial it's awesome! I like that it gives a setup diagram. That will be a great starting point for me. Thank you for taking the time to respond to my questions. I hope to put up a few better portraits in the next few weeks once I get my lighting down