To take a selvportrait

The task was to find 5 points to describe myself. Quite difficult in the beginning, but after a while some words and images appeared.

Blue is my favorite color, complementary colors as well. Geometrical forms, reflections, nature and architecture are items which I am interested in (I found in fact 6 points!).

I got an idea how to make a selvportrait. We walked out of the studio and I found a shop window with nice reflections of the mountains in Ørsta. My zoomlens with wideangle (24 mm) provided a perspective that supports the geometrical shape of the architecture.

In the end I could integrate all points that I found in the beginning.

1/100, f 5.6, ISO 100, 24 mm

Lightsetting

When you are doing portrait-photography it is essential to know how to use the light, either it is natural light, unnatural light in the studio or a combination. There are a lot of different kinds of studiolight, strong and direct, or more diffuse. The first one is throwing hard shadows (see the left picture). Using a second light on the other side of my model lightened up the shadows (see the right picture).

Left picture: 1/125 sec, f 9, ISO 100, 90 mm, right picture: 1/125, f 9, ISO 100, 80 mm

Change your position and point of view

Everybody is seeing the world from their own point of view. Changing the position can make your pictures more interesting. Go down on your knees, lie down, get on a ladder. Think through what you want to show in your picture.You get nice portraits of babies if you go down at the eyelevel of the child.I played hide and seek with this 10 month old little girl. We had a lot of fun and I waited for her to look under the bench to take pictures, almost laying on the floor. I din’t used studioblits, but high ISO.

1/80, f4, ISO2000

88 mm, without flash

You can see more images from the workshop in the gallery. Enjoy!