Spiderwebs
Sorry I'm not home right now
I'm walking into spiderwebs
So leave a message
And I'll call you back
-- No Doubt --
<...
Read more
Sorry I'm not home right now
I'm walking into spiderwebs
So leave a message
And I'll call you back
-- No Doubt --
Selfportrait with flash
Read less
I'm walking into spiderwebs
So leave a message
And I'll call you back
-- No Doubt --
Selfportrait with flash
Read less
Jun, 2016Views
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ponchoalarcon
July 25, 2016
Beautiful image. Beautiful idea. Beautiful black and white. And, of course, beautiful model =D
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Behind The Lens
Location
This is a self portrait taken in my bedroom, in front of the window.Time
It was actually taken on a regular cloudy afternoon, around 3pm.Lighting
I'd just gotten my new external flash, the Canon 430EX II. So while there was sufficient daylight in my room, I wanted to play around with the flash. This photo is a combination of daylight and the flash, right in front of me. The daylight made for soft shadows, but the flash was able to really bring out and highlight the strands of hair across my face.Equipment
This was shot with a Canon EOS60D, with the 50mm f1.4 on a tripod with the Canon 430EX II flash and a Canon RC-1 remote.Inspiration
Besides just wanting to test my flash, the song that inspired the title was actually stuck in my head: No Doubt's "Spiderwebs". I guess this inspired the hair in front of my face, as well as choosing to shoot in black & white. I somehow associate No Doubt with b&w images, probably because I've got their Greatest Hits album which is silver and black. I added red lipstick for the extra contrast because I already knew I'd be shooting in black and white, and after that it was just playing around with expressions and posing.Editing
Barely, since I shot both JPEG & RAW, I decided to go for the JPEG which was already in b&w, and just added contrast in Photoshop. I also cropped the photo to a square format to lose distractions.In my camera bag
Besides of course my Canon EOS 60D body, I usually add the Canon 35mm f2.0 and the Canon 80mm f1.8. If I have space (and weight) to spare, I add my 50mm f1.4. I keep a couple of SanDisk SD cards with 32GB with me, but usually just use one of them. If I know I'm going out for a self portrait, I take my Hama tripod and Canon remote with me.Feedback
I always feel like the thing about self portraits is authenticity. I usually get into this kind of flow, where I'm posing and changing expressions, while clicking my remote (with a 2-sec delay so I can go from concentrating on the click to concentrating on the shot). While a remote is not essential for taking self portraits, it is super helpful and just speeds up the process so much. Don't be afraid to get close to the camera and just play around with expressions and your distance to the camera.
