Self portrait for the first week of a 52 week challenge.
This was a single exposure with the flash firing 3 times.
Self portrait for the first week of a 52 week challenge.
This was a single exposure with the flash firing 3 times.
Read less
This was a single exposure with the flash firing 3 times.
Read less
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken in my home studio in Annapolis, Maryland. I used a 10 foot black backdrop with 2 lights.Time
I was in the mood to play around with lighting for a challenge and started setting up around midnight. I'm a night owl. Everybody that knows me, knows that. After making adjustments to the lighting and trying quite a few different poses, I snapped this a little after 2 AM.Lighting
I placed the main light overhead facing straight down and placed a fill light directly in front almost waist high at a 45 degree angle. Both were set on strobe to fire 3 times at one time per second. The flash output was set to 1/128. Both were triggered remotely via a master flash on camera that was set to not fire. I used a 24 inch hexagonal softbox on both the main and fill lights.Equipment
The image was taken with a Canon 6D using an EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM lens. The camera was mounted on a Manfrotto 190X tripod with the 496RC2 ball head. All flashes used including the master flash that did not fire were Canon 600 EX-RT Speedlites. The two softboxes used were SMDV SPEEDBOX-S60 and both were on light stands.Inspiration
Inspiration for this came from two things. The first, I recently purchased the two SMDV softboxes and wanted to try them out. Second, I am doing a 52 week challenge and the subject for the first week was to take a self-portrait. I was striving to do something a little out of the ordinary, so I decided to set the flash mode to strobe and try different poses that I could do quickly for a single 3 second exposure. I wanted a lighting setup that would give me dark look and work a plain black t-shirt to reduce movement in the bottom part of the image.Editing
The post-processing I did was in Adobe Lightroom CC. I was shooting in RAW and had the camera set to shoot in color for the entire session. I converted this photo to black and white and adjust the exposure and contrast slightly. I then adjusted to minimize any clipping in the image. I then used the spot removal tool to a strand of hair I found distracting. The last step I did was add a little vignetting. I was lucky and all three poses in the frame where I wanted them without have to crop the image.In my camera bag
What do I normally carry around with me? I have a Tenba Shootout backpack that I love. I usually stuff it with a Canon 6D as my main camera and a Canon 40D as my spare. I like to shoot in low light environments so I carry some pretty fast lenses. The Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM has been my main lens over the past year with the EF 300mm f/2.8 L USM when I needed to get a little closer. I usually get some attention when I pull that one out though. I have the Lomography New Petzval 85 Art Lens. It's f/2.2, brass and has drop-in plates for the aperture. It gets some attention when in use as well but produces some great images with the bokeh that everyone loves. I just recently added the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM to my bag and have enjoyed using it for the past few months. Last I have an EF 40mm f/2.8 STM for when I need to be a little more discreet. I usually have at least 1 Canon 600EX-RT Speedlite with me unless I have a planned shoot in which case I bring them all.Feedback
Using the strobe function on your flashes can produce some great images. Usually dark backgrounds with light colored or reflective subjects work the best but don't be afraid to try something different! Practice the poses for a little while before taking the shot to make sure you stay in the frame. I had the camera on a ten second timer which allowed me to release the shutter then get into the first pose. As soon as the flash fires the first time, move to the next pose and then keep doing that for each time the flash fires. Experiment with the number of flashes, the frequency of them and the exposure time. Try not to stand in the same place for each pose as this would produce an image overlay that could be distracting.