mela_kalf
Follow"Pain" is a self-portrait expressing my personal state of mental pain. "A pain that cannot be covered with flowers." My self-portraits are a...
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"Pain" is a self-portrait expressing my personal state of mental pain. "A pain that cannot be covered with flowers." My self-portraits are a way of healing the inner torments that I demonstrate with photos.
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Behind The Lens
Location
I take such photos in my home photo studio, which I have equipped so that I can shoot at any time of the day, for example, urgently implement an idea that has just appeared at 3 a.m., it's convenient.Time
It was a sad morning of a cold day, and I ran out for an unplanned run at 5 a.m., and on the way I saw this charming flower. I didn't need to come up with an idea, I immediately understood what I wanted to express as soon as I saw this bright red color, amid the gray and cold landscape.Lighting
I use the light from the window as lighting in my home photo studio during the daytime. A cold, cloudy morning played into my hands to convey the mood and tone in the photo.Equipment
For this photo, I used a Canon EOS 6D Mark II, a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens, I shifted the focus from the face, accentuating the flower, setting the aperture value to 1.8. But the weather that day was too cloudy, so I had to set the ISO around 1600Inspiration
Almost all of my self-portraits are expressions of a state of mind that I treat with the help of photography. Before implementing this idea, I experienced a tearing longing similar to pain for a while. I needed to quench this thirst by expressing my feelings through photography. The red color symbolizes pain. Black is despair. When we are wounded, we experience physical pain, we can tell the world - "you see my bleeding wound, it hurts me...", and the wound can be patched, but when we experience mental suffering, our pain is not visible. We can cover ourselves with a mask of different moods or bright colors (as a metaphor and a reference to a photo) and no one will notice our experience. Only inner tears will flow. That's what I wanted to express with my photo.Editing
Post-processing helps to bring the photos to the ideal, the image of which I initially foresaw in my head. Therefore, I usually adjust the colors to colder tones (depending on the idea) that convey the mood, increase the accents, for example, in this photo I try to correct red so that the color looks like blood, and finally add some vintage effects that make the photo ready, like sauce for dessert. I usually come back to the photo after a while, sometimes after a month or even later to add/remove unnecessary elements. From my experience, I realized that photography needs time and the right moment of mood for post-processing to make it a masterpiece. And in the definition of "masterpieces" I am the most picky critic for myself.In my camera bag
Oh, just recently I accidentally discovered in my hiking backpack an old Vega 11U, 2.8 50 macro lens, which I once threw into my backpack in case of a mixed macro shooting, but I forgot about it. Heh. I always have a couple of light filters in my pocket, for example, in case of shooting in the bright sun, which, although rarely appears in my world (and in my mood), still happens. I take my Tamron tripod with me for every shoot, and for some reason the case is 3 times thicker than the lens itself. Why is unclear, but it turned out to be beneficial to save extra space for something along with a tripod. I try to take a minimum of photographic equipment for shooting, which I spend against the background of nature, because I go to distant locations, it is necessary to be at ease. Basically it's always my standard 1.8 portrait lens, camera and tripod. This is enough to shoot self-portraits.Feedback
Never compare yourself to anyone. Be inspired by other works, but stick to your own style. Be friends with other photographers, be kind and don't consider your colleagues competitors. In a world where everyone competes with each other, there is no place for truthful, transparent creativity coming from the heart. Encouragement, first place, high marks - it's always nice, it increases the self-esteem of the photographer ("5 minutes of fame"), but you don't need to get carried away with it, otherwise you can drown. Therefore, never, never chase a victory in the competition, do your creativity from the heart and with the soul, what you feel, what you anticipate, the only way you will preserve your naturalness and sincerity.