Monochrome Self Portraiture

This is my entry for the #monomad challenge

I’m getting the lighting set up down. It’s not quite perfect or where I want to be but it is moving in the right direction.

Today’s self portrait exercise was done with three lights one speed light(A) in a soft box, another speed light(B) with a honeycomb grid and a continuous LED panel(C). Speed light A served served as the key light, while Speed light B served as the fill light, and the Light C served as a back light or rim light depending on the picture. All the photos were captured in manual mode on my trusty Panasonic Lumix GH4 shutter speed 1/60 of a second, Iso 100, F-stop 8 on the Konica Hexanon 28mm lens. Things I need to work on are post editing. Specifically cleaning the image of imperfections in the skin, getting a nice skin tone, and making certain things pop such as the eyes are or colors pop without being distracting. As usual I’m happy with the composition but I’m aware the editing could be better. If anyone has any classes or videos they can direct me towards I’d be more than interested.

My goal with this exercise today was to get a clean portraiture/headshot look. This style clean style, by my standards, is very different from what I usually do. I typically aim for a moody, dark look with lots of contrast and even some color but I figured today would be a good time to just practice some all-around good lighting. I think I did pretty good. This is also the first shoot in which I got to use a tripod, yes I know. I recently bought a tripod and I am realizing how much I have needed it. Not only for video shoots but for a portrait shoot, a tripod will come in handy a lot. The tripod did make taking these self portraits a whole lot easier and it also freed up a light stand so this way I can use a third light with relative ease. I also got to implement my grey backdrop which I rarely use outside of video shoots but figured it would be good practice and would make my life easier In post to work with a solid background and I was 100% right.

When it came to post editing I definitely was a lot more patient and not so much in a rush. I also learned some new tricks in Adobe Lightroom that I could use. For the first time, I tried working on making the eyes stand out more without being too noticeable. With that I achieved mixed results. I’ve got a lot more work to go luckily practice makes perfect or at least damn close.