Yes, another self portrait....

ShannonHeat

Okay all,
This is my very first attempt at a self portrait. It is a closeup, and I'm a little nervouse about posting it. I'd love to have c&c.

1)

Seneca

The first one is better than the second one. The second one is a little unfocus around the left eye (well my left).

Other than that I think it's good.

ShannonHeat

I appreciate your response . It has been a task getting anyone to respond to threads :cry. You are absolutely correct, looking at the second one, I see that eye slightly out of focus.

Seneca wrote:

The first one is better than the second one. The second one is a little unfocus around the left eye (well my left).

Other than that I think it's good.

urbanaries

Shannon, you have such lovely features, I wouldn't worry at all about the close up factor, and I personally love tightly composed portraits.

I prefer the composition and expression of the 2nd one, it's quite nice!

The first appears to be taken with a wide angle lens and it seems to be distorting the top and bottom of the photo. Generally, lenses over 50mm are recommended for a more natural point of view, and looking at the camera in a slight angle like #2 makes a world of difference.

Kudos to you for your courage...i've yet to show my face close up around here!

ShannonHeat

You are very sweet to say that:D. I personally like the slight angle myself, I just wish my right eye was a little more in focus. I'm also an avid lover of tightly composed portraits. Thank you so much for your input.

Shannon

urbanaries wrote:

Shannon, you have such lovely features, I wouldn't worry at all about the close up factor, and I personally love tightly composed portraits.

I prefer the composition and expression of the 2nd one, it's quite nice!

The first appears to be taken with a wide angle lens and it seems to be distorting the top and bottom of the photo. Generally, lenses over 50mm are recommended for a more natural point of view, and looking at the camera in a slight angle like #2 makes a world of difference.

Kudos to you for your courage...i've yet to show my face close up around here!

kdog

Ditto to what's been said above. You have great features, but the distortion from your wide angle shot isn't all that flattering. You could get the same crop with a longer lens further away and not have the distortion. Getting that eye in focus will be a challenge, but I guess you could use a smaller aperature to get you some more DOF. Keep at it.

-joel

urbanaries

ShannonHeat wrote:

I personally like the slight angle myself, I just wish my right eye was a little more in focus.ur input.

Shannon

the best thing about self-portraits is that they're the easiest to re-shoot!

evoryware

I like the hair and eye color and the smile of the first. Too distorted though on top. Looks like you are looking up into the camera a tad. Camera may be a smidge too high making your forehead stand out.

ShannonHeat

What about if I close cropped the top of the pic? Or, should I just try again?

evoryware wrote:

I like the hair and eye color and the smile of the first. Too distorted though on top. Looks like you are looking up into the camera a tad. Camera may be a smidge too high making your forehead stand out.

evoryware

urbanaries wrote:

the best thing about self-portraits is that they're the easiest to re-shoot!

I don't think it's the crop or your features.

I think it's the position and the lighting. I think you can pull off a much more flattering self portrait.

ShannonHeat

Thank you . I must try again.

Shannon

evoryware wrote:

I don't think it's the crop or your features.

I think it's the position and the lighting. I think you can pull off a much more flattering self portrait.

Thiago Sigrist

Hi Shannon!

Don't worry, there's definitely nothing wrong with you!

One suggestion I'd give you is to keep the camera 4 to 6 feet from the subject (you, in this case) for portraits. It's more or less what I do, regardless of lens.

That, however, means you'll probably need something longer than 50mm for a closeup, which is fine!

This way, working distance is great (for me at least) and results are more flattering, and truer to the real facial features.

Thanks for sharing, and for your attention!
Take care!

-- thiago

midnitejam

Hi shannonheat,
I like these shots very much. They feature a very lovely subject.

I like the 2nd shot more than the 1st. I would love to see what the results would be if you did a retake of the shoot and only changed camera angles and lighting angles.

I think the pose and camera angle in the first shot would have been better suited for paramount lighting (where the main light is overhead in order to create the "butterfly" shadow effect on the upper lip that is common to paramount lighting).

The "broad lighting" in #2 is an improvement over the 1st shot, IMHO, but I believe Rembrandt light with your particular features would be awesome. In #2, for instance, if the side light were higher and from a 2:00 o'clockish position and if you were facing farther to your right so as to extend the nose's shadow all the way to the edge of your cheek, then you would have better modeled your lovely features.

ShannonHeat

Thank you everyone, I can't wait to re-shoot using all your advise . I'll re-post afterwards.

Shannon

Thiago Sigrist wrote:

Hi Shannon!

Don't worry, there's definitely nothing wrong with you!

One suggestion I'd give you is to keep the camera 4 to 6 feet from the subject (you, in this case) for portraits. It's more or less what I do, regardless of lens.

That, however, means you'll probably need something longer than 50mm for a closeup, which is fine!

This way, working distance is great (for me at least) and results are more flattering, and truer to the real facial features.

Thanks for sharing, and for your attention!
Take care!

-- thiago