Self Portrait Project

Photo Joe

This is a project I decided to do simply for fun, and its the first time I've really put any time into shooting portrait photos, so its been a learning experience, haha. Here's the first 4 that I've completely so far, I'm pretty happy with rage and fear, but not so much with sadness and joy. Please post any CC you like, I'd love to hear what I might have been able to do to improve them. Thinking about doing laughter and boredom later in the future, possibly more.

All taken with an XSi, canon 24-105mm, Speedlite 430EX II, tripod and remote switch.

marikris

What an interesting concept! I wish the focus was more on the eyes in "rage" and "joy" (maybe with a higher aperture so the dof is not so shallow). I really like "fear" a lot - have you tried a slightly tighter crop along the top/bottom and left side?

heatherfeather

Hi Joe... Something looks strangely familiar about you. (ha ha)

#1. You need a little more fill in the eyes... Also you have lost a great deal of the detail in your hair. This is a great concept, and love the expression. Your processing to the red side of things works well with your rage idea.
What you can do: lower your flash a bit... or hold a reflector (or a bright piece of paper/ poster board) under your chest, bounce of the ceiling and go for clam shell lighting...

#2. This is the strongest of the set- great scared expression and lighting. And your eye is nicely in focus.

#3. Hate to say it but this is the weakest of the set. Your focal point is on the tip of your nose, and nothing else is in the frame is in focus. Your eyes are the window of your soul, and if they are not in focus then the shot needs to go in the recycle bin. Especially with this concept, your eyes need to both be razor sharp. Great expression and idea though. Stop down a bit and get your DOF a bit more deep and that will help you a lot with that.

#4. I love the way you have the word trailing from your eye as though it were a tear. That is some pretty great creativity popping out.

Keep working on this concept- this could be a real winner if you get the technical stuff worked out. I love the creativity! That will be fun to have in a portfolio...

Photo Joe

I wish the focus was more on the eyes in "rage" and "joy" (maybe with a higher aperture so the dof is not so shallow).

Agreed, I guess I didn't realize how out of focus the eyes were, especially in joy. I'll have to reshoot those with a little more pre-planning, they were mostly spur of the moment 'I'm bored and want to play with my camera' shots, haha.

Thanks for the comments Heather. I agree with you comments on 'fear' being the strongest, and 'joy' being the weakest. The reflector is a great idea, thanks. I'm finding I need to be really creative with the limited lighting I have. 'Fear' was shot in a dark bathroom, with a very cheap DIY snoot on my flash, and bouncing it off a mirror.

Please keep commenting if you like, I appreciate all the advice anyone can offer!

On a side note, my DIY snoot was completely open in the inside, but I've seen some that have straws or honeycomb patterns filling the inside, like this. What's the purpose of the straws and honeycomb effect? Does it simply focus the light forward, instead of spilling around in different angles?