Self Portrait_week 1_ natural lighting

[mwatson]

Camera Pentax K10D
Exposure 0.167 sec (1/6)
Aperture f/9.5
Focal Length 15 mm
ISO Speed 280

I am back tracking a little on my self portrait project here and asking for a week one critique.

At first I was going to turn this into a multiple me shot to portray restlessness or angst. But, I decided a minimalistic approach would work better.

I shot it at f9.5 because I wanted it to be relatively crisp throughout and I was only using natural light.

This originally showed more of the bed and my legs but I cropped it down to where it is now. My legs were cut off at the shins and it just looked strange.

My questions are;

Is there too much negative space on the top right corner? Or does it work?
Should I move the crop to the left to get rid of the night stand?
The chair rail feels like a distraction, does anyone else see this?

[Hill Country Hack]

I like the mood and minimalistic value of this shot. I feel you captured what you were looking for.


For me, I miss seeing the rest of your right shoulder, right elbow and left forearm including the tips of the fingers on the left hand. Correcting that may throw a wrench into the Rule of Thirds.

As for the negative space in the upper right corner, maybe a touch to much. How about a crop with the top of the frame even with the top of the bedpost.

This is a good beginning. Keep them coming.

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by mwatson

I am back tracking a little on my self portrait project here and asking for a week one critique.

At first I was going to turn this into a multiple me shot to portray restlessness or angst. But, I decided a minimalistic approach would work better.

I shot it at f9.5 because I wanted it to be relatively crisp throughout and I was only using natural light.

This originally showed more of the bed and my legs but I cropped it down to where it is now. My legs were cut off at the shins and it just looked strange.

My questions are;

Is there too much negative space on the top right corner? Or does it work?
Should I move the crop to the left to get rid of the night stand?
The chair rail feels like a distraction, does anyone else see this?

My answers to the questions:
1. I don't have a problem with the neg space, but I personally would have placed the negative space in the direction the subject is looking. Usually (rules are often best broken) it is considered more pleasing to the eye when negative space is placed in the direction the subject is looking and/or moving.
2. If you moved the crop to the left to remove the stand, you would be cropping your elbow which wouldn't look good to me. In fact part of the issue I have with this is that you cropped both arms/elbows/hands awkwardly.
3. To me, your use of a narrow aperture causing things to all be in focus is a distraction in and of itself. I don't know (maybe you can expand on why) why you wanted everything to be in focus? What is it about the background elements you want in focus? I don't see how they add to the image.. In fact, though it may be my eyes, it actually looks like the background is more in focus than you are..

[SGToliver]

I think the chair would have been less of a distraction than the headboard. My attention immediately goes to the detail in the woodwork and not you. If you are set on using that angle perhaps you could point your camera lower, look at the camera and include more of your arms and the top of the chair. I am going to assume (based on the fact that the headboard is more in focus than you are) that you had to go back and forth from your camera in order to take this self portrait. Please correct me if I am wrong. A shutter release would help with this. I am guessing that you shot at f9.5 because you were having issues with getting yourself in focus?

[Bruce A]

Even if you put the headboard and bedside drawers out of focus they will still be a distraction with the dark shapes against the light wall. My advice is to reposition yourself, even move the side drawers out of the scene and keep the headboard out of the scene with camera angle. Try and shoot with a wider open apeture and from a lower angle - make sure to get focus on your eyes. Take a test shot or two using something as your head to get the focus and comp right. But above all - have fun

[mwatson]

Originally, I was to be lying on the bed in multiple places, so I needed a larger field of view. I see what you’re saying and I should have changed the aperture when I came closer to the camera. Also, I am using a shutter release on these pictures. I am just having trouble getting myself focused because I have not been shooting dead center of the frame. I have been using a hat on a collapsible stand to get my focus but I did not on this one as I using the bed as the focus.

That is a tiny bedroom and the right side of the photo is actually the corner of the room. I did not want to get that in the photo as I felt it would be more distracting than anything else.

Are my elbows cropped awkwardly because they are half way out of the picture?

If I was to reshoot, what do you think about moving more of the left of the frame and going with the lower angle ya’ll are talking about? Would that allow the proper amount of space for me to “look into” and cut away from the hard contrast between black and white?