January: Self Portraits

I don’t like being in front of the camera - there, I said it. But after thinking about it, how can I encourage others to step in front of my camera if I don’t like doing it on my own? I felt so hypocritical.

So I made a promise to myself: each month, I will take self portraits (and post them!) to improve both my craft behind the camera and comfort in front of it. For the month of January, I procrastinated. I wasn’t sure I was ready to this and I also couldn’t decide on what I wanted to practice. January 31st came, and I knew I I couldn’t break this promise to myself. I headed to Pinterest and searched for some inspiration. I stumbled across some photos Nich Flancher had taken of Fariah at a photography conference and it reminded me of the Starboy album cover Nabil Elderkin captured for The Weeknd.

I decided that photographing with gels - something I don’t normally do - was what I was ready to practice. It wasn’t easy - I hadn’t photographed self portraits since college. I headed to my studio in the South Side of Pittsburgh and got to work. I set up a yellow backdrop and set up three lights. I started by getting the blue light adjusted correctly on my face with the strength I needed. I played with the ISO and shutter speed and finally got the color correct by adjusting the white balance via Kelvin. I added 2 lights to illuminate the backdrop and went to work.

Overall, these were my top 8 images and I’m pretty excited these were the results of my first self portrait session in years. I can’t wait to keep this tradition going!

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