Director, FBI, 1946 (or not ;)
Selfie. Me in a 40's look
Selfie. Me in a 40's look
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Dec, 2016Views
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Awards
Winner in Black and White Portraits Photo Challenge
Winner in Self Portrait Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
All Star
Superb Composition
Outstanding Creativity
Top Choice
Magnificent Capture
Top Ranks
Top 30 rankTop 20 rank week 2Top 20 rank week 1
Top 30 rankTop 30 rank week 1
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This was shot in my studio...well, living room; against a white backdrop in front of a dark wall, which I tried not to over-light into pure white, but allow some 'clouds' to remain. It's a self-portrait, using my phone, held just out of shot, as a remote.Time
Time of day... not really important; there's almost no natural light in the shot.Lighting
This was an early experiment, taken within a month of getting my first DSLR. At the time I had 2 constant video lights with which to light the subject, high right & low left. That left me with just a 10 dollar non-adjustable flash to highlight the backdrop - on an old mic stand, held on with rubber bands just behind me. I had to use the on-camera flash at minimum power so it would barely show on the image, but was just sufficient to fire the remote flash.Equipment
D5500, Tamron 70-300 @70mm f4 1/25s ISO 100 2x LED constant video lights, cheap 10 quid/buck/euro remote flash.Inspiration
I work in TV/film - but nowhere near the camera - as a 'supporting artist' (yeah, an extra ;) & part-time actor. I like working in period drama & by chance acquired a real old-style suit. Add the greased-back hair, the cigarette [not actually lit] & the vision that this would be output in black & white & I thought I might have a chance with my new camera to produce a kind of Hollywood-style 'leading man' image from yesteryear.Editing
I spent a lot of time running between the camera & computer, checking quite a large selection of images on the big monitor, working at getting the lighting right so when I dropped it to black & white it didn't need much post-pro. I was new at this, guessing a lot; but the one thing about guessing a lot is it rather quickly teaches you a lot of ways how NOT to do something. I'll not claim to yet remember all those ways not to do it, I still need more setup time than a pro would; but I'm now learning to light things faster & more to what I have in my mind's eye through these experiments. I considered dropping it to sepia, framing it to look like a scan of an old photo, etc - but decided to leave it simply greyscale, unadorned.In my camera bag
I'm lazy. If I'm just on walkabout I'll take just my 18-300mm. It's not the fastest or the sharpest in the box, but I'd rather have the picture I got, than the one I missed because I was hunting out another lens from my bag. In the studio, they're all in reach & 'the moment' isn't so important. My portrait lenses are the Tamron & a lovely nifty fifty 1.4 [the 18-300 just doesn't cut it for that] In the studio, if I'm not doing portrait, I'm doing floral macro; for that my go-to lenses are still the Tamron70-300 macro or if I'm getting in reeaaaly tight I swap to the nifty fifty. All achieved with up to 68mm of extension tube to be able to focus right up to the lens front (any wider & the focus point ends up inside the lens!) & a sturdy old Manfrotto with a budget macro rail to do my focus-stacking shots.Feedback
As this is by no stretch of the imagination a 'pro' shot I couldn't hope to advise anyone else on how to achieve the same effect. Read the books, the web, absorb the expertise the pros give away for free. Every time a pro posts a magnificent shot, try to figure out how they did it, how they lit it; see if you can find what lens they used... & if you can't afford one, see if you can figure out another way to do it. Move your lights, change the balance between the two. If you can only afford one light, use a window to light the other side. Be inventive. Be creative. Work at it. If only one shot in a thousand makes you happy... let that be what makes you happy. Don't despair at the other 999... you're on digital, they're 'free'. Throw them out & take some more. Come back in a year & see what you learned between then & now. It's a journey...travel it.
