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 Our photo group has an ongoing assignment to do people photography. It's a more long term assignment than our previous ones. This week we're meeting to talk about people photography that we like, and try to figure out what makes great people photos. I am really eager to do portraits, and I'm sure everyone is sick of seeing photos of my dog and my husband, so I decided another easy target would be myself. Well, that was sort of true. Easy because I have continual access to myself, but not so easy to actually do it. Well, here's one from my first session. I added sepia and changed the levels in photoshop to get the very dark look. Please give me your honest opinion, I know nearly nothing about portraiture so if you have any criticisms or suggestions, I'd love to know. I just want to learn. Posted by Gaja at March 28, 2005 02:36 PM © All images are copyrighted. Please contact me for permission or licensing. Commentsyour purrty! oh and the picture is fine too ;) Posted by: esa at February 12, 2006 08:41 PM This is great! I look forward to seeing your self-portrait series. I myself have started one as well, due to this bad weather and not being able to go out. Posted by: PROJECT3six5 at April 2, 2005 06:14 AM I like your self portrait. You have very delicate features and the lighting and expression on your face enhance them. Posted by: Lorraine at April 1, 2005 07:56 PM I also like the lighting choice, hiding one side of the face adds mystery to some portraits because you dont see everything, leaves it up to the mind to fill in the blanks.... Posted by: paul at March 31, 2005 08:20 PM i love it ... a little shy, a little unsure .. very nice Posted by: Crash at March 29, 2005 09:35 PM I'd say you are doing fine with portraits, keep it up. I personally love monotone portraits. The darker the better. Especially if it brings out the characteristics of the subjects face. For me it shows alot about that persons life. Posted by: Sean at March 29, 2005 04:27 PM I love this, the dark and shadows work so wonderfully with the expression. You have done a fine job on this self portrait ... really beautiful and evocative! Posted by: daisies at March 29, 2005 11:42 AM I hardly do portrait photography myself. Never know how to get started or how to let people pose. This one is beautiful, the dark side on the left, the look in her eyes is captured very well. I like this one. Maybe, in the future I will get into it. Please convince me I should. Posted by: Chantal at March 29, 2005 03:51 AM I think it's lovely. I think the tone and depth works very well. Nicely done! Posted by: Jennifer at March 28, 2005 10:05 PM It's a very good portrait and I especially like the tones and the angle of how you posed. I took a self-portrait a while back but didn't have the courage to post it. Maybe I will now. Posted by: Simon at March 28, 2005 09:06 PM Gaja, I rather like your expression (especially the eyebrow!). I've tried to take self-portraits, but found it hard to capture a good expression when I'm not behind the viewfinder (and I'm not all that facially expressive to begin with). I wonder how many takes you had to do... Unlike the others, I don't think the exposure is too dark. One half of your face can tell the story just fine; we don't need to see the other half. If anything I would suggest darkening the strong highlights a little on the right side of your face (nostril, eyebrow, cheek) -- they are too bright and therefore a little distracting (i.e, is your right side supposed to be visible or not?). Same for the top of your hair. Next you should try a bright, high-key self-portrait for some contrast ;) Posted by: mikero at March 28, 2005 08:48 PM I love the lighting you used, and how dark it is. It's a beautiful self-portrait! Well done! Posted by: Sara at March 28, 2005 06:41 PM I'm sure I'll tell you this tonight, but my reaction to it is that the darkness seems really nice (you'll see that many of the pictures I picked out to talk about tonight are also dark). However, I think it might be slightly too dark, completely obscuring one of your eyes. I really like what it does to your right shoulder, but somehow when it obscures your face to such an extent, it seems slightly too dark to me. I do like the darkness though, and I think it works particularly well with sepia rather than straight black and white. Great idea to use yourself as a subject! Posted by: luminouslens at March 28, 2005 05:29 PM I think this is quite nice, actually. I like how dark it looks. Your expression looks just a bit contrived, but don't worry about it. I know how difficult shooting a self-portrait can be! I always think I look stupid or something. :) Posted by: Paulo Ribeiro at March 28, 2005 04:59 PM That's quite unusual. I normally don't like too much post processing in portraits or otherwise, but somehow it works here. Posted by: Maxx at March 28, 2005 03:26 PM Post a comment |