Self Portraits

Some people take self portraiture to a fine art form. If you don't believe me, just check out some of the 365 Days stuff people are doing on flickr. Personally, I'm not narcissistic enough do take pictures of myself every day, and as a photographer I prefer to have better raw material to start with!

In any event, I have been doing some selfies lately, as a way to experiment with lighting equipment and techniques I seldom get to use. I had this idea of a bright background portrait with a snooted light on the face of the subject. I didn't want a completely white background or a completely silhouetted subject, but instead just enough detail to impart some texture.

I decided to take it a step further and light the background unevenly in an effort to create a sort of chiaroscuro effect contrasting light with dark (a style that I like and use frequently in portraits). With no models or athletes of the year around, I recruited the closest thing to an athlete I could find--namely me in my fencing whites.

These are the results. Not exactly what I wanted--largely due to space and lighting equipment limitations--but still the effect I was going for. Lighting is one flash aimed at the background from the lower right, and one tightly snooted flash high about 45 degrees to the left. aimed at my face.