Me, Myself, Without the I

PhilD41

Okay, I will start by saying I should be embarrassed by how long it took me to get these two shot. I am comforted with the fact that it wasn't the lights causing me grief, but posing, composition, and focus. I will caulk that up to inexperience with self portraits. General inexperience would probably be more honest.

Anyway... Here are two from playing around tonight. I was going for Rembrandt lighting after being inspired by Anonymouscuban's Rembrandt shots of his wife. I have a bounce umbrella up front camera right around a 45. And a kicker back camera left. I also tried to identify my "closed side" to light from. Although I feel they are missing that "polished" look I seen in professional photos, I am quite happy with the results. Partly because I know what they would have looked like if I had taken them a month ago.

So, without babbling too much more; here they are. All comments and critiques are welcome.

#1: 1/200 @ ƒ/3.5; ISO 160; 50 mm

Red Sweater 1 by phil41dean, on Flickr

#2: 1/200 @ ƒ/4; ISO 160; 50 mm

Red Sweater 2 by phil41dean, on Flickr

By the way... I have noticed that most portraiture on here are done closer to the 100 - 200mm. I know on my D7000 my 50mm prime is more like 75mm. Should I be considering shooting a longer focal length? I have a 70-300mm I could use if I knocked a wall out or two. Just curious.

Hackbone

For head shots these are better than most I see. In the first one I would bring my exposure down a tad more in line with the second one. Your kicker might be a little hot and will cause some problems with retouching when you slip and it skims the face and accents facial bumps. It is starting to hit the face in the second one.

I might try a higher camera angle which will then shorten the nose length. These are just comments so take what you want and leave the rest in the dust.

PhilD41

Thanks Hackbone! I will take your words as a complement... and an area for improvement. I did drop the exposure down on the first one and simply replaced the image in the first post. I debated with the exposure the first time for quite a while. As for the angle, any means of shorten my nose is appreciated. I couldn't get my tripod up much higher. I probably should have found a shorter stool. I also agree with the kicker being a little hot. I was using my bare speedlight zoomed out to 80mm @ 1/128th. I debated a DIY snoot for it, but decided that wouldn't really help the intensity, just the spill so decided not to. It took me a little bit to find the pose that didn't have the kicker spill onto my face. That was actually the hardest part of the lighting for me.

anonymouscuban

Phil. I think these are damn good all things considered. I've done quite a few selfies and they are a PIA. Focusing is the toughest. The fact that you shot these at f/3.5 they're tack sharp is quite impressive. As long as I'm not using f-stop creatively, I find it much easier to do selfies at f/5.6 or smaller. Gives you a bit of wiggle room.

I do agree with all of Hacks comments.... as usual.