Self portrait frustration

[roostabunny]

50mm
1/30
f/2.8
800 ISO

Hey all, I'm working on this self portrait, and I thought I lighted it and thought through things, but when I started working on it it just seemed flat to me for some reason. I can't put my finger on it. I said... meh. Any ideas on why? Lighting? Pose?

I have a related question, too. How on earth do you nail the focus on a self portrait? Is there a technique? Manual focus?

Edit: One of these days I'll try a selfie someplace other than in my home office at night. And I'll wear a different shirt.
Edit 2: I have other shirts.

[zona5101]

First thing i notice was the dark eyes...really need to get some light in there and create some nice catch lights. A cardboard reflector could throw some of the main into the eyes. Catch lights give if life. Second thing is your hand is blocking some of the light which is creating a more splotchy look to the overall light. You have very close to "Rembrandt" lighting but the hand is messing that up a bit. Third this I notice is it seems you have either a small light source or it is too far away. The shadow edges are abrupt rather than smooth and feathered. You can move the light closer or use some diffusion material. Lastly, a rim light on camera right would be a nice touch to give some added dimension.

[Doug Sundseth]

The first problem I see is that the skin on the key side is blowing out completely. As a result, you lose the rich tones that make skin photographically interesting.

The second thing is that your falloff from key to fill side is very steep. If you expose for the highlights, you'll lose the shadows completely. You need to pull up your shadow side, either by dragging the shutter even more (to get more ambient contribution) or by adding fill light.

Third, from the way the shadows fall, it looks like your light is small and quite close to your head. There's hardly any spill lighting your shoulder or collar. While a small light close by acts much like a large light farther away, this is one of the differences. Shadows cast by a small, close light go nearly everywhere.

The crop you chose on camera left and top looks cramped. With a looser crop, I think your pose would work pretty well.

Focus on self portaits is tricky. You can try using a string attached to the front of the lens to set the distance to the eye, then just drop the string and shoot the picture. (Manual focus for that one.)

[Niresangwa]

Originally Posted by Doug Sundseth

The second thing is that your falloff from key to fill side is very steep. If you expose for the highlights, you'll lose the shadows completely. You need to pull up your shadow side, either by dragging the shutter even more (to get more ambient contribution) or by adding fill light.

Third, from the way the shadows fall, it looks like your light is small and quite close to your head. There's hardly any spill lighting your shoulder or collar. While a small light close by acts much like a large light farther away, this is one of the differences. Shadows cast by a small, close light go nearly everywhere.

I think this is just about right...

Because the contrast between the key and fill is so stark, with very little graduation between the two extremes of blown highlights and low quality fill, it's so dramatic, it feels flat; a paradox, I know.

[carlyfan]

I agree with the others on the lighting. The difference between the light side and the shadow side is too extreme. I think that's the most distracting thing for me.

I agree with Doug about the crop too. It just feels too tight to me, particularly on the left side of the frame. I want to see more of your hand. With just the little bit visible it looks odd to me. I like the pose, but I would just like to see more of it.

As far as focusing goes, maybe you could try to compose your shot with something else in the frame that is on the same plane as you. Then you could focus on that. I recently did a self portrait where I was leaning up against a tree. I focused on the tree, set the focus to manual so the camera wouldn't refocus, and stepped in the shot. Then, for each shot, I inched my head forward a little so I would get one that was spot on. It took awhile, but it worked fairly well.

Good luck!
Lisa

[roostabunny]

Sooooo helpful! Thanks, all of you!

First off, spot on on the lighting comments. A very small key just out of frame. Not-very-strong ceiling light for fill (I'd actually dimmed it some, underestimating how much the closeness of my keylight would overpower the fill). I read Light: Science and Magic but you guys are helping me apply and make sense of all the info I crammed in on the first read! Then the second read will make even more sense!

Anyway, I think that this is the main problem for me on this image. The light is so dang uneven, I can't get the contrast I want without losing the eyes, blowing out the highlights, or both. As Zona mentioned, the shadow of my hand (right next to that keylight) and wrist adds to the problem.

I have a pop-up reflector - think I could hold that opposite the key and get some better fill that way? I've thought about doing that before, but forgot the reflector out in the car for this shot. If I do that it leaves me another light to use as a rimlight.

I can agree about the crop. Unfortunately the awkward part (the cut-off fingers) is the original frame. I tried cropping in top and right, but instead of making it more intimate I apparently made it cramped. I did like the pose - more relaxed and natural than most I had - and the main reason I picked this one out of my top four to work on.

Lastly - genius on the focus. I gotta start bringing my problem-solving skills into this medium for goodness sake. That's half the fun isn't it? Anyway, I'd thought about letting the camera focus and the switching to MF and shifting forward slightly over a number of shots in the right range. But the string method! String?! Too cool. So simple.

Thanks again, folks. I was missing school and my photo teachers from of old, so it's so awesome to have this community of resource!

[Doug Sundseth]

Glad the comments were helpful.

As to reflectors, we've been discussing the issues of single-light plus reflector for self portraits over here. There might be something useful in that thread.

[roostabunny]

Cool. That's a great thread, thanks, Doug!