Reflection
Self portrait by timer and tripod.
Self portrait by timer and tripod.
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Jan, 2018Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo is one of many taken at Sumner Beach in Christchurch, New Zealand. Its one of two major beaches in the city, and i preffer this one because its less windy and has these beautiful rocks, along with some caves as it is close to mountains and cliffs! it has only been about two or three months since I've bought my long wanted 750D Canon, and on a beautiful summer day like this I just couldn't miss out on a beach photo shoot.Time
I was a bit too lazy to wake up earlier and get there sooner for some soft sunlight, so this was taken about 9-10am, note that it's also the middle of summer, so the sun was extremely bright.Lighting
I don't use any lighting equipment. I would like to consider myself a "natural light photographer" but honestly, being just one person and both taking the photo and posing, i think handling lighting equipment would be a bit too much, plus i don't have much knowledge about it anyway. So the only lighting here is the sun, and probably the water reflecting the sunlight. As I've mentioned before, the sun was extremely bright, and about 50 degrees up in the sky, which made me naturally turn my face away as i waited for the timer to go off...Equipment
When i got my 750D Canon, it came with a regular 18-55mm lens which i continue to use for all my photos you can see in my gallery... unfortunately this lens doesn't do extremely well with portraits and astrophotography because of the aperture limits, but it is fine for "general" photography. Here i used an aperture: f/9 with an ISO of 100 because it was super super bright, and the shutter speed was 1/200. NOTE: i started off with a faster shutter speed and upon examining the test photo i saw it was a bit too dark, so i had 2 choices, adjust aperture or slow the shutter speed. i decided to slow the shutter-speed considering my camera was sitting on a tripod and i was happy with the aperture. I also used a timer of 20 seconds in order for me to have enough time to get to my spot and pose.Inspiration
Nature is my main inspiration in most of my photos. I am so fascinated by the many forms nature comes in and considering that a person is a part of nature, why not combine the two together? And of course being just an amature that absolutely loved photography since childhood and saved enough money to purchase myself a decent enough camera to explore my limits, i was eager to go out and try, try and try! You learn something new every photo shoot, so when you're learning try to make your sessions various and try everything to see what you like most!Editing
I am still confused about processing RAW images, so i shoot in JPEG format. I used Adobe Photoshop 2.0 to slightly edit this photo. I added a slight bit of contrast to make it POP a bit more and i cropped the sides a bit to centre myself in the middle, as well as cropping out a bit of sky since it was a bit too much.In my camera bag
Just my 750d camera with ti's 18-55mm lens already on it, shutter release cable, 10 stop ND filter in case i want to shoot long exposure during the day, a tripod and a notebook! i always carry a little notebook with me to write anything down incase i forget, like what setting i used at what time of day, so the next time i shoot i already know where to start!Feedback
If you're shooting self portraits, remember the word PATIENCE! when i shoot, it's just me, my camera, and nature, i'm carried away and i don't care about time and other factors, but of course it's time consuming and some may find it even frustrating when you can't capture THAT image which is in your head. When this happens, go back to basics, think about the composition and where the light is coming from. Maybe if you move 2 steps to the right it might be a completely different image! When shooting portraits, do try to keep your aperture as wide as you can. My best portraits are usually done at f/4.5 or f/5 but that's as wide as my lens lets me. if you can go all the way to f/1.8, GO FOR IT, it will give you a great creamy bokeh in the background and wider view, but be careful about where your focus is, you don't want your subject to be blurry! I absolutely love shooting water! the faster your shutter, the more sharp it will look, and the longer your exposure, the more creamy/foggy it will be. But remember that if you change your shutter speed drastically, let's say from 1/100 to 3" , you will have to change your ISO, Aperture, or alternatively you can use a Neutral Density Filter. In general, when shooting outdoors, especially in the morning, don't make the mistake of coming too late. it's better to come early so you can scope the place, pick your spots and be ready when the perfect lighting hits!
