self portraits. please critique

12sndsgood

No longer a newbie, moving up!
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indianapolis
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www.square1photography.com
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Okay, since I have been laid off I have decided it is time to give my photography a push. so I made my own backdrop. got my camera and flash out and started working learning on better how to light a subject, subject ended up being me since most people work during the day. okay i used my sb900 with a reflective unbrella (last few times ive used the shoot thru. so i figured i'd try something new.) for the standard portrait shot it was to camera right (my left) around 40 degrees or so and a bit above eye level. the hardest part i had was trying to get focus while photographing myself. not sure if there is a secret to this or not. second shot was just me being an idiot. looks like my dof was too shallow to keep my arms in focus on this one perhaps. and the last one was just screwing around again with the flash in front of me and low to the ground. thats a face u can trust right? lol so let me hear everyones responce. tear them up please and point out any flaws you see. this is how i improve.

1.)


test_3 by Sndsgood, on Flickr

2.)


DSC_0009 by Sndsgood, on Flickr

3.)


test by Sndsgood, on Flickr
 
You look harmless in number one, jovial in the second and criminal minds unsub in the third lol. Nice variety of poses, I think you might benefit from some background separation but other than that I can't say much I suck at self portraits.
 
i was about 6 or so feet in front of the background. though black on black. i'll do my next set in a diffrent colored shirt. just happened to have a black shirt on and thought that might make it a bit harder to make a half way decent shot. so i left it on lol.
 
The focus could be better as you said, to tell you the truth I drive myself crazy trying to get myself in focus and that's with the camera in my hand I was about to take some self portraits then said, eh, too much of a headache right now, so I feel yah on that.

I really like the general feel to the third one, I would suggest a little less light so that your face isn't as apparently lit up by unnatural light, and so that your shirt is a lot less visible, I would really love to see what it looks like that way.
 
yeah i only took two shots of the last one so didnt do allot of playing with that one. i agree a bit less light would have been better.
 
I believe when he said separation, he could have been talking about either lighting the background or backlighting the subject.

Do you have more than one light source?
 
currently just a single light. im going to pick up a reflector. and quite possibly a few more flashes very soon though. since im laid off i hope to spend a few hours every couple days working on getting the hang of things and learning as much as i can.
 
To get proper focus just put something in place where you would be standing, focus then set your focus to manual.
 

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