1.5 FAQ / Introduction to Self Portrait Photography
Our third assignment in my course called INDOOR SELF-PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY by photographer Taya Iv, was to practice making our first self portraits using various simple techniques that were reviewed by Iv in the posted video lecture. I ended up shooting two photos using various techniques explored in the video, as discussed in this post.
PHOTO 1…
It’s snowing today, so I’ve been outside shovelling it. I came into the garage to drink a bottle of water and decided to pull my ZV-1 out and snap a few photos.
I used a wide aperture with the camera set for 24mm @ f1.8 for a shallow depth of field, which was explored in the video. A lot of my selfies have a deeper depth of field, shot at f8 or greater, so the world around in me is in focus. But here I wanted the water bottle to be a bit blurred out but my eye in focus. It took 8 shots before I got one I liked. It’s hard to get layered depth with a shallow depth of field - but I think the bottle helps to achieve it in this shot. Also you can see shelves behind me. My garage is messy and maybe I could have achieved a better more interesting and even claustrophobic feel had I shifted my body to the right of where I was.
Another technique from the video is a selective focus - part of my face is covered by my hand and the bottle and I did make the conscious decision to not look directly at the camera bit to somewhere outside of the frame. I also liked the droplets on my glasses - makes one wonder why they are wet. It had stopped snowing by this time, but had I come in and done this twenty minutes earlier there might have been clumps of snow and more droplets on my glasses.
I did not edit this photo.
Overall, I’m ok with this shot. It’s not my best, but it’s not my worst. 7/10?
This photo was also posted on Instagram.
INSTRUCTOR FEEDBACK…
PHOTO 2…
December 26, 2021: Last night (or should I say, very early this morning?) I shot another photo as I was inspired by the #lighting coming in one of the small #windows at my Mom’s house.
For this shot, I left my settings on auto. I used a wide aperture on my Sony ZV-1, resulting in the same selection of 24mm @ f1.8, as I wanted a sharp #silhouette of my face, with the bird image in the window and the frozen #icicles behind it to also be in focus. I was okay with the background to not be tack sharp as I did want it to have a slightly #dreamlike haze to it, as we don’t often get #snow in Metro Vancouver and I’ve felt mesmerized by it.
Overall, I shot over 60 photos to get maybe five or six that I really liked and I narrowed it down to selecting this one to post on the class forum. I started playing around by taking a wide variety of shots, including some when the door to the room I was in was open, which lit myself a lot more and you could see the kitchen reflected in the shot but I didn’t like the vertical window of the shot I had taken. There were also a few shots with cars passing by but I didn’t like the placement of the cars and they messed with the sharpness of things closer in the frame, making the bird and my face slightly out of focus. Had my camera been on a tripod they might have turned out better.
For the photo I submitted, I didn’t do any post processing editing to it (you can see that photo above). But in posting this photo to Instagram, I did do some slight in Instagram editing using Instagram’s brightness and contrast tools, which helped bring out my face more (you can see that photo at the end of this post). Using a tripod and remote to snap the photos might have allowed me to physically move myself more to get my body more into the composition but I kinda like where I am, peaking into the frame.
Overall, I like this one slightly more than the one I posted drinking water. I love the contrast between the warm yellows of the street and the blue coming from a spotlight shining onto the house. I think I’d give this shot a 7.5/10 as is.
One other thing I noticed today is my date stamp was wrong on my camera!
360/365.
This photo was also posted on Instagram as seen here:
When posting it to Instagram I again made some slight adjustments to the image’s overall brightness using Instagram’s editing tools.
INSTRUCTOR FEEDBACK…
Extras…
This was a good video examining the use of filters and other editing tools to achieve a more perfect look, otherwise known as Selfie Dysmorphia.
Even with my own photos, where I’m trying to present a more honest look about myself - I know I try to hold my head a certain way, to hide what I find as flabbiness in my chin, cheeks and throat. I also try not to show my gut as I’m overweight due to my depression and addiction to eating too much junk food. Personally though, I wouldn’t ever get cosmetic surgery - although I do regularly wax my beard and parts of my body, as I am uncomfortable with the amount of hair I have. And my last statement isn’t necessarily the complete truth (about getting cosmetic surgery), as I’ve considered getting procedures to help reduce my waistline - but I guess my statement is true because ultimately, I haven’t chosen to do them.