Rude Buddha

[daq7]

Back in the 80's this neo punk band called rude buddha did a song that i really liked. never could get a copy of it. just saw it on video. i have no idea what the song was now really, but i always remembered the name of the band and liked it....

[Shebang]

Your creativity is amazing. How you can keep coming up with so many approaches to a self portrait is impressive. I can't come up with even one! Is this natural light on the R and your strobe on the L?

[daq7]

Nope, both strobes. On the right is a lasolite umbrella reflector with a strobe firing into it. It is almost right on top of me. The one on the left is firing about 80mm through a honeycomb filter about 3/4 behind me. The back light strobe was just a bit too bright I think. I wanted it to be bright, but I ended up blasting out that side of my head.

[Shebang]

I've been reading about lighting -- but I think I'm more confused than ever now. The blowout on your head is a little bright -- but at least you're practicing and learning.

[GB1]

I like the environment and your squat, and the lighting across your chest is really neat !!!!!

I think it could be even better though. That thing you're holding in your left hand - whatever it is - could be more symbolic of Buddha or that era, some incense burning, a hat on your head, etc. Technically it's very unsharp, but that seems to be consistent throughout the image (what happened?).

In all - super creative. Keep it up

G

[daq7]

Thanks for the comments Paula. Fiddling with lighting schemes is what currently interests me most about photography. It is just fun learning. I don't think the basic ideas are rocket science, but knowing what to do and making art are different things.

G: Thanks for the comments about lighting on the chest. Its a bit hokey. I did it in photoshop. I am tempted to build a lattice to create the effect by firing a flash through it. I probably will try that some day.

The thing in my left hand is the remote to fire the camera. I figured I would make a joke of firing it from the lotus position. I have a remote now that can be timed and set to take multiple shots and I will likely start using that to do self portraits, but I haven't learned how to use it yet.

As for the focus, I don't know. DOF looks ok. the Chair behind me is in pretty good focus. And the sheets look pretty crisp. There seems to be a bit of softness in the face area, but the edges look fairly clean to me. Do you think it is just the soft light or is there really a focus problem.

If there is it would not surprise me. I have to rely on the camera to autofocus this stuff. In this case the room was pretty much black. Very little external light. I was having a hard time getting the camera to fire, and it only occurs to me just now that it may have been having a hard time auto-focusing. That is probably what it was. So maybe that kept me from getting crisp focus.

[gahspidy]

Hey Daq. once again you set up a very creative and interesting scene/subject for your SP.
Glad you responded abut the remote timer thing in your hands, because I was going to say that it does not belong in the shot really. Enabling a self timer, programmable or otherwise will make it more convenient and eliminate the need for you holding this in your hand.
I'm wondering why you are using a 25 sec shutter speed. Thats the reason for the softness and lack of crisp detail in yourself, and why the cloth on you and the chair in bg are fairly sharp. Also, when you drag the shutter that long your mixing much ambient lighting in with your strobes giving you all sorts of unusual color temps and skin tones.
Why not just light your scene with the strobes and use a shutter of about 1/125? Also, stop down to about 6.7 or 8.0 to get good detail throughout yourself.

Allow some ambient light in the room so that your camera's auto focus will find you and lock in. With a faster shutter and stopping down you will not have the ambient light in the shot, it will just be there for the camera to see and lock focus.

[daq7]

I'll be honest and say that the shutter speed was an accident. I had taken the still life I posted just before this where I was trying to get a long exposure, and I just forgot to reset it for this pose. I think maybe I need a checklist so I don't keep forgetting stuff.

[Frog]

Been coming back to this off and on since it was posted.
Only two comments; that you are very creative with your portraits and that the remote definitely does not fit unless you wanted the tension introduced by something seeming to not belong. If that is the case another not belonging element might enhance that or even something different. It has our attention so that could be what you were after.

I can only imagine what goes through your wife's mind when you are setting this stuff up.