Self-Portraits, accidental, semi-accidental or vain!

[Kevin Bjorke]

I have a few, I was just thinking about this one earlier today, a little streetphoto joke:

http://www.botzilla.com/photo/salon/bjorke_obvious.jpg

I think in general self-portrait needs to be more than a likeness, it needs to be a self portrait seen as something else, something more -- to be really successful. The group shot in the "handheld tips" thread, for example. The self-portrait qualities of it disappear.

[Don Lashier]

Borged
http://www.lashier.com/images/temp/040509-027650-3.jpg

Guess I should add a comment that I was out to shoot a vet clinic acrooss the street and standing in front of this shop waiting for the traffic to clear for a shot, turned around and took a couple of shots into the shop only to notice my reflection, so I lowered the camera and snapped this. Been meaning to go back and take a serious self portrait :)

- DL

[Eric Perlberg]

here are a few more techniques:

posed shadows:
http://sqs.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/myshadowandlamp.jpg

or more sinisterly, this (part of a collection):
http://sqs.blogs.com/photos/curiously_incongruous/graveyard2.html


trying to look relaxed in a mirror on the street
http://sqs.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/meinmirrorinmarblearch.jpg

posing in sunglasses (kind of difficult at this size)

http://sqs.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/meinsunglassdisplay.jpg

[Kevin Bjorke]

I guess what I meant was, in simpler terms, a photo that at first glance or third might not appear to be a self-portrait -- it's first something else.

http://static.flickr.com/53/174283646_8e87e7ce67.jpg

This is a stumbling attempt but I like the idea of my own gaze and the photographic one being separated

[Asher Kelman]

Sef portrait can have so many interpretations. At the far end it could be a blotch of green on blue, a metaphysical interpretation.

Here, I would imagine that self portrait has been taken to mean a picture including part of my own image.

This sort of definition is fine. However, there category of self portrait that one might be anchored to is one which shows at least the form of the artist sop that they might be recognized.

If one also conveyed something more, like class, wealth, power, character, profession or lack of any of these the portrait woulod be richer.

All the pictures shown are self portraits if the author declares so.

But who can say that there picture shows more than an image of their own person?

Kevin's last picture seems to be this.

Don's image is quite fascinating. Printable!

Eric's posed shadows provides philosphical challenges, to me at least, of harsh choices in life. The spear from below signals we must go one side or the other of the barrier. Again verty printable.

In that one chooses a picture with one self in it above other pictures, it might well say importanmt things about the photographer, without us realizing it. After all, our choices are never totally random.

Asher

[scott kirkpatrick]

How's this (find the photog)?

http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~kirk/testfiles/RIMG1392small.jpg

scott

[Asher Kelman]

Bottom left hand corner of the train windows?

Asher

[Nicolas Claris]

Bottom left hand corner of the train windows?

Asher
Yep! I agree, the photog is certainly sat on the other side of the wagon, we even can see the window in his back being reflected on the glass behind the woman...

But how can a viewer guess that it is not the protrait of the woman but a self portrait of the photog?

Asher! your turn! we all are waiting to see your self portrait!

c'mon!

[scott kirkpatrick]

But how can a viewer guess that it is not the protrait of the woman but a self portrait of the photog?


Odd question. I didn't intend a self-portrait, but I was intrigued with how it was impossible to separate the inside from the outside of the train, or even select one side to view. And I thought it had about the right amount of me in it -- less wouldn't have mattered, and more wouldn't have helped.

Here's another of this general school, taken by my daughter on a rainy morning in Edinburgh:

http://www.pbase.com/skirkp/image/34280266

I think there is an element of self-portrait in it, because it reflects her likes, and her direct approach.

scott

[Don Lashier]

In the process of taking tonights bathroom art (http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=887) I (almost) accidently took a self portrait. I noticed my face reflecting in the actual photo currently hanging in the bathroom so snapped a shot. It's not ideal (my eyes don't show) but I found it rather interesting.

http://www.lashier.com/images/temp/bathsp.jpg

- DL

[Martin McLean]

Accidental self portrait + bathroom art = could be worse.

[Mary Bull]

Nice to see you in person, Don.
I like the photo simply as an image, also.

Mary

[Asher Kelman]

Don,

It's great! It has immediacy. Also a beard to be envious of!

A good subject and wonderful background. I'd do more!

Asher

[Cem_Usakligil]

Oh my! Timothy Leary's back and he is wearing a beard!

Just joking of course <lol>. But upon seeing this picture I couldn't help having a flashback of the 60's and the psychedelic images associated with that era <grin>.

Seriously though, very nice portrait Don! I like it.

Cheers,

Cem

[Don Lashier]

... couldn't help having a flashback of the 60's

Wifeypoo wants to hang it next to the lava lamp.

- DL

[Carl Harsch]

With the exception of the reflection (camera?) in the lower left, I find this to be a quite pleasing self portrait. It's moody, thought provoking, and different. In short, I like it.

[Don Lashier]

With the exception of the reflection (camera?) in the lower left, I find this to be a quite pleasing self portrait. It's moody, thought provoking, and different. In short, I like it.
Thanks Carl, yeah that's part of the camera reflecting. I didn't notice it til after posting - it's easily cloned out and I'll do it when I get a chance. I was shooting blind obviously. One of the keys was the underlying image (http://www.lashier.com/home.cfm?dir_cat=23544) which had a central dark area, but what I don't like is that the light was a spot directly over my head that left my eyes unlit (but maybe that's the moody part).

- DL

[Dave New]

It could have been a reflection of your face in the toilet. 8-)

So, all in all, I'd call it a successful shot...

[Ivan Garcia]

lovely shot Don ... I love it.

[Giovanni Brembati]

Hi guys!

Just a couple portraits of myself. Photos have been shot at home, witout any banks, lights, reflective panels and so on. Unfortunately I haven't enough free space to reproduce a studio at home.

Lights used have been the following:
- Sun light coming from my back (through a window)
- Fill in flash to light the shadows and make smoother the background (didn't work so well for the first shoot ;-) )


I hope you will appreciate them.


http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/8868/img1017zc2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/3056/img1047pu3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Canon EOS 400D - Canon EF 70-200 F4 L USM


Have a nice shots,
Jacopo

[Asher Kelman]

Giovannni,

Great to see who you are or rather your person! Glad you joined OPF and are open this much to share self portaits. Might you now add new backgrounds?

How did you process skin color? By eye>

Seems rather ruddy. Is it so?


Asher

[Giovanni Brembati]

Hi Asher!
Just to clarify ;-) person in the shot is Jacopo, the son of Giovanni. He is "the" family photographer.
Giovanni, my father, is a programmer and he is developing PhotoResampling software, i mentioned it in some post concerning retouching.

Ok, coming back in topic, these are the steps of the digital workflow used on posted images.
First of all, I converted the raw files in tiff (8bit) with DPP (canon). I didn't perform a lot of adjustment on this step. Just one or two point of sharpen.
Then, i opened the tiff image in PhotoResampling and i worked on White Balance. As necessary I used also Curves, Shadow and Highlights, and exposure features.
Maybe, I used the "clone" feature to remove some skin imperfection. I ' m not sure if this step has been performed for these two shoots. I remember that in some shoots of this session i used it.

That's it.

Seems rather ruddy. Is it so?

It could be, i was just came back from holidays, so my skin was tanned ;-)

See you soon bro,

Jacopo

[Asher Kelman]

I've brought up to date and merged a number of self-portrait threads.

O.K. guys, six months later, who has accidental/almost accidental self-portraits? Give the circumstances behind the shot!

Asher

[Kathy Rappaport]

I shot the interior of a bathroom and I was in it.

Better than the naked "plump" person in the ebay photo of the teakettle for sale (no, not mine, but it went around the email circuit)

[Rachel Foster]

Can't call this accidental... I was traveling without the children and took it to sent home and hopefully make them smile.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x153/annieblues/Annie%20Blues%20--%20In%20Front%20of%20the%20Camera/meinvenice.jpg

[Charles L Webster]

This one was accidental. I didn't see my reflection in the truck mirror until I was posting the image.

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/4541905-md.jpg


This one was intentional, it's what I use on my "About Me" page on my web site. Shot in my studio w/ 2 AB400 strobes.

http://www.charleslwebster.com/picts/about-pic1.jpg

Sorry about the size, I just linked these in, didn't resize them for the thread.

[Don Lashier]

Here's another that wasn't exactly "accidental" but rather "incidental" as there was no other way to get the shot.

http://lashier.com/images/CAT73504p.jpg

- DL

[Rachel Foster]

If that's a bathroom, it's majorly cool, dude! (I'm so with it...wack!)

[Don Lashier]

If that's a bathroom, it's majorly cool, dude! (I'm so with it...wack!)

Yup, a bathroom. That was my fall project last year. Glad you like it - that was WIP, here's a finished shot with lighting in place, which still qualifies for the thread as I couldn't hide all the way. The shot also needs ptLENS correction - this one is straight out of C1.

- DL

http://www.lashier.com/images/cat74666p.jpg

[Rachel Foster]

Love it!

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a self-portrait. I set up the lighting and the pose, but hubby actually shot it.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x153/annieblues/Me/Sundaynightv1003033.jpg

This is definitely a self shot:

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x153/annieblues/Me/17vw.jpg

[Don Lashier]

> I'm not sure if this qualifies as a self-portrait. I set up the lighting and the pose, but hubby actually shot it.

In my book it does - you basically did everything but pull the trigger. Love it also - very thought provoking and mysterious. But this image had me twisted in incredulity for a bit until I realized that your legs are crossed :)

btw if handing off the shutterpress applies, here's one of myself (on the right) 40 years ago.

http://www.lashier.com/images/nd35455p.jpg

- DL

[Marian Howell]

this is a self-portrait, making use of the marble staricase and the mirror.
http://www.pbase.com/capecodfish/image/54583282.jpg

[scott kirkpatrick]

I like the weirdness of this one.

http://www.pbase.com/skirkp/image/85441127.jpg

If you go to the pbase account, the EXIF that shows the picture taken at f/2.0 is clearly incorrect. f/5.6 is more likely.

scott

[Rachel Foster]

Just for fun....

While I was learning to use the timer, I stepped in front of the camera. I came out blurred as the lens did not have time to refocus, but I thought it was a fun photo.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x153/annieblues/river%20sweet%20spot%20iwth%20iso%20400%20and%20ti mer/monriver015.jpg

[Martin Kuivenhoven]

Trying to figure out how my flash settings worked quickly left me without volunteers - hence the self portrait. This try was a accidental long shutter speed in combi with flash - me walking out right after the flash.

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/1778/f1010005oq2.jpg

[David A. Goldfarb]

Here's something of a work in progress--

http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/temp/DGmirror2sm.jpg

Someone asked if I could take a photograph of myself in a mirror outdoors at night using a press camera and flash. This turned out to be really challenging, and for the moment I've set it aside, but I'll probably come back to it using a second camera instead of a mirror.

I wanted an urban background and spent weeks hunting around Manhattan whenever I was out and about looking for a building with a mirror at street level. Surely I've seen them everywhere, but if you actually go looking for one, you'll never find it, so I found a floor mirror that I could use for the shoot and just set it up on the terrace of my apartment building.

Meanwhile I tried some Polaroids with a full length mirror indoors.

First thing I discovered was that the flash on the camera can't provide the illumination, because it produces way too much flare. It has to be cut back to just an effect, maybe 5 stops or more under the main light--which means there has to be a main light on a stand. I only have one battery pack for my portable Normans, so I would also have to run both lights off the pack with a splitter, which is why I'm so wired up in this shot. That's the sync cord going from the shutter to the light and the heavy cord is the power cable to the flash. The battery pack is clamped to a light stand holding the main light. I want a hard look, so I'm not using any fill, other than what comes from the camera flash.

I ended up putting the main in a Norman 19" portable octabox with a silver interior without the diffuser on the front for a kind of hard Weegee look. To get the light on the camera down to this level where it doesn't completely blow out everything I wrapped the tube in two layers of paper and used a diffuser that eats up two stops. With the splitter on the pack the output is symmetrical to both tubes.

For the outdoor shoot, I tried a few different compositions. This one has some space at the top for text. I was shooting Efke PL100 and processed in Acufine for EI 200, if I remember correctly (I can look it up, if anyone really wants to know). I think I'm at f:16 here, and the lens is a Symmar 210/5.6 convertible. The camera is a Linhof Tech V.

I still needed a lot of edge burning (in PhotoShop from a neg scan in this case) to reduce the flare from the light and the hot spot on my left shoulder and upper arm, which looks fake to me.

I think I need to bring the output of the camera flash down even further to make it work. Come to think of it, I now have a Norman LH3b head that lets me dial down the power on one head (the LH2 head in the picture is controlled only by the power setting on the battery pack), which I didn't have at the time of this shoot, so that makes things easier. I also think that without a front-surface mirror the mirror glass produces too much flare, so I'm going to have to go to using a second camera to make the photograph. I'll have the second camera on bulb so I can have the lens open when I make the photograph as in this shot.

[Tim Armes]

Well, this one wasn't accidental, however it wasn't done in vain either. I hate seeing myself in photos but I needed one for my web site...

There are loads of things wrong with it, but hey, after 20 minutes of trying to get something half decent I realised that it just wasn't going to happen!


http://timothyarmes.com/images/portrait.jpg