Self-porrait macro eye shots (a tutorial)

[hugy789]

Macro pictures are one thing, eye shots are another, so are self-portraits but if you mix them all together things get very complicated very quickly.



This shot was taken for my year long, photo a week, self-portrait project: fifty two
http://www.flickr.com/groups/fiftytwo/pool/

I had some questions about it on flickr so i decided to write a tutorial on it.

It's actually quite simple if you break it down into steps:

The setup:

1) Put your camera on a tripod (or other steadying device, ie. a table)
2) Put your lens on manual focus and on it's minimum focus and zoom it in all the way (this is ecspecialy important if you only have the kit lens, like me.

The shoot

1) Put your head really far back, to what you know is definitely out of focus
2) Then, prefebly with a remote shutter release, take a shot, then move your head in a little, take a shot, move your head in a little.....
3) keep doing this 'till you know you are to close for your lens to focus.


This should ensure a sharp pic.

Other tips:
Try looking away from the camera for a more dynamic shot

This particular image:

I Lighten and desatuated the skin and colour the iris all in the raw converter.


Pleae leave a comment on my tutorial if you liked it!

Here's another shot using roughly the same technique

[hugy789]

What, 103 views but no replys? give me some comments guys!

[Legend]

Neat tutorial. I'm going to try this.

[photofun]

I'm going to try this at some point for one of my 52s - thanks for sharing your method!

[Dayton-G]

I have noticed that alot!
A thread will get so many views and barely any replies.
The Orton effect thread has more then a thousand views and maybe 14 or so posts (maybe higher since this time).

However the tutorial is nice, and I will try it now actually. I had a hard time doing some Self P's because to get what I wanted, I had to use little light, and I couldn't focus. It was frustrating, and then my shots didn't turn out. But this will be a fun challenge.

I love the colouring on the Iris, it looks great.
And for the border... just click the pic :P
I'm not actually sure, I think they add it so people know? just aesthetically pleasing I'd assume.

[hugy789]

Dayton-G, if i click the border it just taks me to the flickr page...

[hugy789]

Arrgh, c'mon!

309 veiws and 5 comments!!!!

Please comment if you like this tutorial!

[mseigafuse]

The shot is great and the tutorial is good too.

I've noticed it too - lots of views and not many comments - it is just the way it is .

My camera has an option to beep when it is focused, which I turned off because it was annoying - but I've thought about using that for SPs - have you ever tried that?

Mike

[Arun]

Originally Posted by hugy789

Arrgh, c'mon!

309 veiws and 5 comments!!!!!

Frustrating isn't it! Anyways, I like what you have done, the eyelashes are nice and crisp, did you change the color of the iris? This would be nice to try and then make the eye color pop in post prod.

Thanks for sharing

[Saralonde]

Good shot, nice tutorial. I'm sure a lot of people will read and try it without commenting. Remember, there are a lot of guests here that aren't members. They can read, but not comment, so often your threads will show a lot of views. A lot of views and few comments seem to be a problem on a lot of forums.