Took your advice on Self headshots

[MyOwnPaparazzi]

I posted a couple of self done headshots a few weeks ago and I tried to take everyone's advice. I tried again without flash and I moved myself further away from my backdrop. Definitely not professional, but I do think it's an improvement on my last pics and I thank everyone for the constructive criticism. definitely need to work on lighting, but I think that will require purchasing new lighting which will have to wait.


-Stephanie

 

[MyOwnPaparazzi]

btw these are straight out of the camera only cropped. I think they'll look even better when I do some minor editing

 

[_gingerstocking]

They feel a little bit "cool" to me. (Slight blue hue) But that can easily be fixed in post.

 

[MyOwnPaparazzi]

thanks for pointing that out, I will try to eliminate that

 

[MyOwnPaparazzi]

im really cool toned LOL I do actually look like this. whats the easiest way to warm them up a bit? I'm new to GIMP

 

[MyOwnPaparazzi]

Here is some amateur post editing using very (very) limited knowledge of gimp. I have no idea if it's better or not.

 

[julianliu]

Pretty portraits with pretty white teeth, not with big smile, which is understandable and can be corrected after several tries of practice with attention.

You do not need to have lots of light to produce a good head shots. The lighting, I think from the below is not flattering. You never want to shoot with main light from below. I see the catch light is in the about 7 or 8 o'clock position, which tells me the main/key light is from below. Catch light in the 2 or 10 o'clock in the eyes is much more flattering.

The post process is a little too much, for example, the eyes have such black circles around. when I first learn post process, I tend to over process, unfortunately I think you are making the same mistake as I did.

A little warm skin look better than cool skin to me in normal portraits, unless you want to achieve special effects. You can adjust this easily in white balance and fine tune it through temperature.

I like the first pic's pose, which is your body did not face camera directly. I like the second pic's smile, even thought not much.

Hope that helps.

Julian

 

[MyOwnPaparazzi]

thanks for your comments! Still getting trying to get that lighting correct

 

[tirediron]

First things first. The focus is off. If you get NOTHING else right in a portrait, you must have sharp focus on the eyes. Use a stand-in while you're setting things up and lock your focus on that, and as well, ensure sufficient DoF so that your whole face is sharp, I like f5.6-8 for this sort of work.

I don't 'get' your choice of lighting here; I see at least two different catchlights with the key appearing to be below. Generally speaking we expect things to be lit from above (the sun, overhead room lights, etc), and while lighting from below can work in certain circumstances, IMO, it doesn't here.

Start with the basics; key light high and 30 degrees right (or left) and fill about 80 degrees on the opposite side. You can either use a second light for fill, or a reflector. Bring your lights in close (as in 2-3') and keep the power down as low as you can go.

 

[Derrel]

Yes, the key or "main" light seems to be a mixture of two lights...the lighting is a mess. The light is fairly hard light, and the shadows created by the low-positioned light are casting shadows in an upward direction...VERY unflattering! The harshness, the undiffused nature of the light from below, is causing circles under your eyes in the second shot. The light off to the side in the first shot is causing a bad shadow of your nose. That low light position is causing weird shadows on your dress..shadows moving UPWARD, counter to the direction of gravity...these are subliminal, negative clues. Lighting from below is called horror lighting, or monster lighting, in common parlance. Lighting from below has been recognized in popular culture as creepy, or spooky, or indicative of frightening nature, since the early days of the silent film era, and that is why Tirediron suggests keeping the key light HIGH.

Besides the weird shadowing, these lights are also harder, more-shadow-prone, than proper, diffused light, and make your skin look less than ideal. You need softer light. And as he mentioned, good focus. Here is what lowered "clarity" and a slight hue adjustment did to the first shot, which is the more in-focus of the two shots. The second shot has not had the hue adjusted quite properly, and it looks too "cold" by comparison with the edited first frame.

 

[MyOwnPaparazzi]

thanks for your comments everyone! I am chuckling right now because I was thrilled when I took these...and then you guys tear me apart!! haha I want to improve though so I am very glad for the help. I'm just a regular person though, not a photographer so I don't even know what some of the things you say about light mean. I think I'll just go to a professional soon. These are pageant headshots, thus the hair and makeup. I bought this light set and it came with 2 tall lights and one short one. I use the 2 tall ones with umbrellas on either side of me,then I put the shorter one in front of me which was a mistake obviously. I didn't think about the shadows that would be cast. If you had 2 tall lights and 1 short light, where would you put them for photos such as this? I need elementary language. This is the kit, please tell me where to put the lights Amazon.com: LimoStudio-Photography Photo Portrait Studio 600W Day Light Umbrella Continuous Lighting Kit: Camera & Photo

 

[MyOwnPaparazzi]

Also what would you set the camera to? I am fairly proficient with the manual setting. I am unsure why these weren't focused since I used a tripod and auto focus. Maybe I was inadvertently moving?

 

[tirediron]

Continuous lighting is not ideal for photographing people. 600watts might seem like a lot, but in reality, it's not. You'd be MUCH better off spending a little more and getting this. Yes, a LOT more money, but even more use. I suspect you will quickly become frustrated with the limitations of a cheap, low-powered set on continuous lights.

 

[julianliu]

thanks for your comments everyone! I am chuckling right now because I was thrilled when I took these...and then you guys tear me apart!! haha I want to improve though so I am very glad for the help. I'm just a regular person though, not a photographer so I don't even know what some of the things you say about light mean. I think I'll just go to a professional soon. These are pageant headshots, thus the hair and makeup. I bought this light set and it came with 2 tall lights and one short one. I use the 2 tall ones with umbrellas on either side of me,then I put the shorter one in front of me which was a mistake obviously. I didn't think about the shadows that would be cast. If you had 2 tall lights and 1 short light, where would you put them for photos such as this? I need elementary language. This is the kit, please tell me where to put the lights Amazon.com: LimoStudio-Photography Photo Portrait Studio 600W Day Light Umbrella Continuous Lighting Kit: Camera & Photo

I am chuckling too because I just saw you changed your profile picture Anyway, 600w is a lot for one light, but that's for three light total in your case, which means only 200w per light. And the light you have is "Watts: 45W - Equals to 200W Regular", in reality I never feel 45w as bright as 200w, so I doubt you have enough light to freeze your motion when taking portraits. Now I am laughing again, at myself this time. Because I bought continuous light to start taking portraits thinking they are cheap. I never used them to take one single portraits I like. And they are stored in my place and I used only the light stand, which are flimsy. Anyway the short light is for background, so it can be hidden behind you to light the background, that's why usually it does not come with umbrella to soften the light and small enough to hide. Surely you can put somewhere else for other use. If you do want to try to take portraits with these lights, here are some advice for you, You can use two tall lights as front side lighting. For you, You need one of them brighter and one of then darker to create some shadows and dimensions on your face. Since you probably cannot adjust the power output of each light you can adjust the distance of two lights relative to your subject to adjust the power, one closer and one far away. And since the lighting is not enough, you will need to bump up your ISO I would say above 800 to achieve fast shutter speed like faster than 125th second for sharp image. You can put a light stand in front of camera to manual focus then remove it to take photos you want to try self portrait. If you want more advice, I recommend watching some videos on YouTube, a guy called mark Wallace on either adorama tv or snapfactory channel has lots of great tips about taking portraits and general photos. What's your headshot for ? If you want real professional one, check their website first and compare which photographer you like. Hope it helps. Cheers, Julian

 

[Granddad]

It's a pity you're so far away, I'd love to have you as a model.

But on a realistic note, given that you know little about studio photography, lighting and post processing I'd say these are pretty good attempts - WAY above the average selfie. The criticism and comments given here are usually aimed at photographers seeking to learn and improve. As a newbie it's all relevant for learning but don't take it to heart and beat yourself up. If you have an interest in getting better at photography I'd say go ahead and keep at it, you have potential!

On the focusing issue, what I did before I got a wireless trigger was set up a teddy bear on an old tripod, focus, (making sure I had reasonable depth of field with the aperture set around f5 or f6) set the timer then slide into the teddy bear's place, shoving him and the tripod aside. FLASH!! ... and fingers crossed. If the focus was off I'd try again till I got it right.

Good luck and keep smiling.

P.S. Just about everything I know about lighting (and lots of other photography subjects) I learned right here on this forum. I'm sure if you go to the relevant section you'll find someone willing to share their knowledge about Gimp, too.