Self Portraits are hard

sweet caroline

I finally went back to look at a few self portraits I did last week. I hate photos of me, but I hate not having a photo of myself on my website. It seems so impersonal. Anyway, I made an attempt. At least I'm in focus. This is just me, no make-up, hair pulled out of my way, just every day me.

Any suggestions on self portraits?



Thanks,
Caroline

P.S. No I don't always look this serious. I teach preschool, after all, so I smile a lot. I just can't fake smile.

pyry

sweet caroline wrote:

I finally went back to look at a few self portraits I did last week. I hate photos of me, but I hate not having a photo of myself on my website. It seems so impersonal. Anyway, I made an attempt. At least I'm in focus. This is just me, no make-up, hair pulled out of my way, just every day me.

Any suggestions on self portraits?

It's a good first try. My suggestion with SPs is a programmable cable release
You can set the camera to take a bunch of exposures on it's own while you go through poses and expressions.

I think you're disappearing into the background a bit too much, and the left side of your face is edging on overexposed. What kind of lighting did you use?

I'd like to see version with your hair hanging down

roentarre

You have done this fabulously well :ivar

i_worship_the_King

I think it's a VERY nice start, however...

I think you're disappearing into the background a bit too much, and the left side of your face is edging on overexposed. What kind of lighting did you use?

GJMPhoto

Caroline...

Just a couple of things:

As the others have already said, separation, separation, separation...a little back light would highlight the edges of your shoulders anda hair light for the top of your head.

I think you'd be happier with the result if you tried a few techniques. Just try them out and look at the results...I'd bet you'll find you like some of these better...it's personal preference, of course:

For your face, I think I would try a more frontal light. Side lighting tends to accentuate the length of a face, whereas frontal lighting tends to round / shorten a face. We're all shaped differently, and you have a longer, rather than rounder face. I think the side lighting exaggerates the length of your face too much. Try bringing the light around to the front in small stages, get a series of photos as you bring it around and check out the difference it makes. Then choose the one you like best! Don't change your head position, just the light. When you get straight on with the lighting, then add a piece of tin foil on a board under your chin just out of camera view to bang some of the light back up into your eyes for that fully lit eye effect.

Also, a pose in which you're shooting down to your subject also lengthens their faces and features. Try bringing the camera down to your eye level, or even below and check out the difference.

One more: It's a matter of taste...but I like to see only one ear when the hairstyle shows both. I would try to turn your head so your back ear doesn't show.

If you hate seeing yourself in pictures, try printing the pictures flipped vertically! Since we only see ourselves through mirrors, we are used to what we look like in mirror-image. I've done this for people who complain their photos don't look like them and voila!

The best thing about a portrait session is that you have time to make these kinds of adjustments and experiment to find what works well with the unique face in front of you. Lighthing makes a huge difference and no one formula works for every face.

It's extremely difficult to satisfy tough customers...and who is tougher than yourself????

- Gary.

sweet caroline

Thanks for all the suggestions. Very useful comments. I find it nearly impossible to look at photos of myself objectively and decide what would work better. It's so hard to juggle being in two places at once!

I don't remember my exact lighting set-up, but it was very similar to what I've used successfully on others. The original had better separation from the background but no hair light. I don't have a remote trigger, so these were all taken with the camera on a timer, running back and forth. My hair's not down because I'd been working all day and hadn't washed it I agree about the ears. Especially with the ears that run in my family! On this occasion I had not planned on taking photos of myself, but I thought it would be a good idea to get some feedback so I can plan for a future session with myself.

I'll post results when I have a chance to follow up. Thanks guys.

Caroline

Howard Barlow

Sometimes, the hardest part of self portraiture is to get the subject to smile.

heatherfeather

GJMPhoto wrote:

If you hate seeing yourself in pictures, try printing the pictures flipped vertically! Since we only see ourselves through mirrors, we are used to what we look like in mirror-image. I've done this for people who complain their photos don't look like them and voila!

Gary- You are the first person I have ever heard say that. I have often thought it and done it for myself, but yay! on you for saying it!

Caroline: This guy has some really outstanding advice! You are very pretty and I think you can get an even better photo if you follow Gary's ideas!

jhelms

I think that's a great first try for sure!

I had the same reservations about self portraits and ended up doing some fun and even some abstract ones.

The 'spinning' slow shutter shot:



I like this one in theory but need to get a clearer shot of me with a less distracting background:



This one is kind of abstract, but ended up looking neat. It was my first and only try at this, pic was taken outdoors around lunch, bright sunlit day w/ no clouds, 10 second exposure while walking, holding the camera out with my right hand (on a tripod), shooting through a polarizer, 8xND, and some GND's in a cokin holder. The further away I am when I look at this pic, the more you can really tell it looks like me:



Another take on the spinning self portrait. This one was done outdoors, no flash, overexposed to get the eyes to show up:



BTW, none of these had any weird post processing done other than mild contrast correction in google's free version of picasa.

Bottom line, these were a way to help me ease into self portraits in a fun creative way.

The Mack

Not bad for a start, obviously some good advice..
If you were going to leave or use this one as is, I would clone out the shirt area that's just by itself.

Scott_Quier

OK - I'm late to the game here, but...

At the risk of talking about the model rather than the photo - you should have no worries about being on the other side of the camera.

OK - On topic...
I like many points about this photo:

• It's aggressive - especially for a photo of a lady - that's nice to see once in a while and you pulled it off well
• The black background works well with your (I think) fair skin
• I like the hair pulled back from the face

Things to consider for next time:

• Watch your exposure - your right (photo left) side is a little hot
• As commented above, you do have a longer rather than rounder face. Research the difference between "broad" and "short" lighting. I think you would do well with broad lighting as that would tend to "round" your face a touch.
• Seperation - not ALWAYS a good thing, but a little is needed here. You have on a black sweater and you have very dark hair. Taken together, it promotes the appearance of a floating head. A light off to one side, maybe opposite the main light, doesn't have to be real bright, but a little will help a huge amount.
• Hiding a ear is probably a good idea. The strength of this photo is in your eyes. In my view, that's what makes it "aggressive".

joshhuntnm

I'd like to see this shot:
a little warmer color balance
a little darker
some hair lights for separation.

the first two, of course, can be fixed in post.

sweet caroline

Thanks so much for all the advice. It was REALLY hard to post a photo of myself, but I'm glad I did. I'm more motivated now to try again.

My skin falls more into the lighter side of medium skin tones, and my hair is a light to medium brown (Im not the Snow White that my older daughter is). My face is overexposed in the photo, and I darkened the blacks in processing. I think I chose that first shot because of the eyes, and darkening the background and my hair made them jump out at me more.

Here's another from that day:




Caroline

The Mack

Here is one I did last night, yours totally reminded me of it..
yes, I know the filter was blue, but I just got my filters in and I wanted to play with them..

sweet caroline

Black on black theme, huh? Your chair is interfering with the floating head effect! Kidding. Thanks for posting your self portrait. I don't have any filters yet- glad you're having fun with yours.

Caroline

crockett

The second version is much better in my opinion.

Biggest correction, I would make is repeat the photo but pose your arms more naturally. Angles, and all that jazz...

Still would like to see some light on the BG, perhaps the classic very faint spot glow or just more falloff from the light source. Or you could create seperation by using a hair/shoulder light from behind.

Finally, I would repeat the photo with diferent arm posture but use broad lighting instead of short lighting and compare the two.

sweet caroline

crockett wrote:

The second version is much better in my opinion.

Biggest correction, I would make is repeat the photo but pose your arms more naturally. Angles, and all that jazz...

HA! I think I was holding a small reflector in that shot, now that I'm looking at my "unnatural arms". I think I'll give up modeling as soon as I get a decent photo for my website.

Caroline

Scott_Quier

sweet caroline wrote:

crockett wrote:

HA! I think I was holding a small reflector in that shot, now that I'm looking at my "unnatural arms". I think I'll give up modeling as soon as I get a decent photo for my website.

Caroline

Don't do that - you've posted more than a couple of real winners of yourself. Maybe get one of your kids to hold the reflector for you - are they old enough?

sweet caroline

Scott_Quier wrote:

sweet caroline wrote:

Don't do that - you've posted more than a couple of real winners of yourself. Maybe get one of your kids to hold the reflector for you - are they old enough?

Yes, the 12 year old could be trained. I've been thinking of taking her along for family/children portraits to hold a reflector. She looks older than she is, and comes across as very mature and intellegent, so I'm sure she could behave professionally.

I still prefer to work with models other than myself!

Caroline

Mitchell

sweet caroline wrote:

Thanks so much for all the advice. It was REALLY hard to post a photo of myself, but I'm glad I did. I'm more motivated now to try again.

My skin falls more into the lighter side of medium skin tones, and my hair is a light to medium brown (Im not the Snow White that my older daughter is). My face is overexposed in the photo, and I darkened the blacks in processing. I think I chose that first shot because of the eyes, and darkening the background and my hair made them jump out at me more.

Here's another from that day:




Caroline

Caroline,
I'm loving this one! You did a much better job with the separation and I really like the pose. A touch more light on your hair would make it great.

lisap

Thanks so much for posting this thread Caroline. I've been having a hard time with mine. I'm hoping that over the Christmas holidays I can play with it a bit more. I haven't gotten anything yet that I'd even consider posting on here!! I HATE pictures of myself, which I've convinced myself is why I'm behind the camera instead of in front of it! haha

I like the second picture you posted. I think what I like about it is that you're kind of looking up to the camera instead of more straight on (plus that the blacks are separated, etc.). Nice job.

-- Lisa P.