Self Portrait
Just a low-key self portrait.
Just a low-key self portrait.
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Jan, 2015Views
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Anton_Alexander
July 28, 2016
try making the eye in colour, it would make this great photo a lot better...!
Eyeconic
February 24, 2017
This is superb portraiture - and even more so considering it is a self portrait - well done
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
Well, I actually took this while I was sitting on a chair in my lounge room at home.Time
It was in the evening, maybe 8 or 9pm. The kids were all asleep in bed and I was just experimenting with the speedlight I had purchased a few days earlier.Lighting
I was using a Nikon SB-600 speedlight that I had purchased a few days earlier and experimenting with a cheap $20 radio trigger from ebay. The cheap radio trigger didn't do TTL so I was experimenting with manually setting the flash power, etc. I wasn't using a modifier of any sort because I didn't have any at the time.Equipment
This was shot with a Nikon D7100 using the 18-55mm kit lens. A Nikon SB-600 speedlight and a cheap $20 non-ttl radio trigger from ebay.Inspiration
I'd been considering trying to do some portraits and this was really just me experimenting with my first basic lighting gear. Trying to get a feel for portrait lighting with a single speedlight and to help me decide what additional gear and things I would need to really take decent portraits.Editing
There was only a small amount of post processing. A bit of cropping, some basic levels adjustments and the black and white conversion. I also increased the exposure of the eye to help it pop a little.In my camera bag
Well, I am not a pro by any stretch so my equipment is limited. I've got my Nikon D7100 as well as a D5100 which was my first SLR. In terms of lenses, I've got the 18-55 kit lens, as well as a cheaper 55-300mm telephoto lens. I've also got a Nkon SB-600 speedlight, and a could of basic filters (CPL, ND) for each of the lenses. My current tripod is an Inca-500... to be honest, it was cheap but it's done alright by me so far.Feedback
It's all about light for something like this. It doesn't need to be complicated and can be done with a very basic setup like I was using. What does provide a challenge, especially so for a self portrait, is judging the angle and power of the light and matching it up with camera settings. In this case I used f/11 to try and cut out any ambient or spilled background light so it was just plain back, despite the white walls of the house.
