| Photograph Information |
Photographer's Comments |
Challenge: Square Crop (Advanced Editing IV)
Collection: Challenges
Camera: Nikon D70
Lens: Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D
Location: home
Date: Mar 5, 2006
Aperture: f/2.0
ISO: 500
Shutter: 1/80s
Galleries: Portraiture, Black and White
Date Uploaded: Mar 5, 2006
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Finally a decent (in my opinion, you'll see that it will win the brown ribbon now that I jinxed it) selfportrait. I had some windmills as well, but I am so tired of them.
I had read in books about Rembrandt, Vermeer and in some portraiture tips that you should use the light of a northern window when you want to use natural light for portraits. So I wanted to try that. Now for a model.... eh.... nobody. Arghh shoot me! And so I did.
Altough I hate being in front of the camera it was actually quite fun to do. I set my camera on a tripod, tried to aim it in the right direction, stand in the right direction and distance and fire the shutter with a Philips universal tv remote that works with the IR receiver of the D70. So I was just moving around and making faces while pushing the button. At first it was a bit akward but I soon got the hang of it. Hardest thing was to get the bored uninterested flat look off my face. I try to look happy here.
Ended up with 40 keepers for future reference (posing do's and dont's). I liked this look the most, it is what I think of as 'me'. And hey, it fitted in a square crop, why not enter it. It looks a bit crappy in the thumb but ok in the big versions.
I wanted to use the 35-70 f/2.8 at first, but it would cause a too slow shutterspeed (or an extra stop of ISO) and is still a bit soft and uncontrasty at f/2.8. So I used the 50 f/1.4 at f/2 instead.
B&W because I like B&W. It is quadtoned because straight b&w looks to harsh.
Alexander is my birthname, Sander is a bit too recognizable.
Setup:
In the 1st floor hallway in front of a northern facing window, closed all the side doors to keep the background dark.
Camera on a tripod, remotely triggered.
Post processing:
Nikon Capture
- Color Mode to Adobe RGB
- Exposure compensation +1 EV
- White balance to Sunlight
Photoshop 6
- Cropped to a square
- Fred Miranda Chroma Noise Reduction
(history brush previous state on the face)
- Fred Miranda B&W Pro: High Contrast B&W default
- Kodak Digital GEM v2.0.0 Noise Reduction on the background only (Highlights to 0, Shadows to 39)
- Mode to Grayscale
- Mode to Duotone
- Quadtoned with
* Black
* Pantone 427 CVC
* Pantone 421 CVC
* Pantone 442 CVC
These are all grey tones.
- Contrast USM on the Lab Lightness channel
- Dodged the white of the eyes a bit (2x 8%)
- Burned the background lightly (app 15%)
- Resampled to 630x630px
- USM 180%, 0.3px, 0
- history brushed 30% of the previous state on the arm of the glasses
- Added border with 2 Canvas enlargements
- Save for the web
2380 |
| Author | Thread |
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04/23/2007 04:30:59 AM |
:) I also read about the northern light, buyt I use all the windows I can find. it is so little light here in Norway so it's good I find at least some:)
wonderful portrait!! you should shoot yourself more often I think:) |
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 Photographer found comment helpful. |
Comments Made During the Challenge  |
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03/12/2006 10:11:47 PM |
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03/12/2006 09:09:51 PM |
| Very nice character study. |
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03/09/2006 08:03:49 PM |
| great image. the contrast betweenthe pale skin and the dark ground. works well. |
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03/07/2006 07:35:06 PM |
| Nice shot but maybe just a bit too centered. |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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03/07/2006 02:24:15 PM |
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03/06/2006 10:23:24 PM |
| Good job! The lighting is just little too harsh on the left side of his face. (I did double check the light bar at the bottom.) |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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03/06/2006 04:58:43 PM |
| Nice portrait. Eyes are shark and expressive. Lighting is great. |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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03/06/2006 07:15:33 AM |
| Is he one of your co-workers, Rikki? ;-) |
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03/06/2006 03:12:34 AM |
| Put yer finger in yer ear Az!!! |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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03/06/2006 01:49:36 AM |
| great shot...just a bit too centred for me, a better composition would lift this |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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03/06/2006 01:17:45 AM |
| what a cutey :-) wonderful black and white tones, great DOF... |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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