Lockdown home studio selfie shoot
 

Just before lockdown I purchased a new lens for portrait work.

It's a Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art prime.

I also bought a new wireless trigger/receiver system that allows control of my studio heads and also my speedlites (flash guns) in one system.
This means I can mix and match lighting systems as required.

As you know, lockdown came along so any portrait work went out the window.
Well, I was itching to play and there's only so many cat pictures I can take with the new lens.

So, I trashed the lounge to get some lights in there and set up......Then it was time to employ a willing subject.............That wasn't Ros:eek:;):getmecoat:

So, I had but only one choice........Me, myself and I :D
To achieve taking the selfies, I tethered my camera to my laptop to control the camera and view what I was doing.
I then got myself in position and using the laptop adjusted the focus onto my eyes. Then locked that focus in by switching the focus to manual so it wouldn't change as I moved.
Had the camera set to a 10 second timer which gave me time once pressing the shutter release to put the laptop down, reposition myself (popped a marker on the floor so I knew I was in the focus plane) and strike a pose:D

Forgetting the subject matter, (very easy to do) I'm super happy with the quality of the new lens and how well the lighting system worked.

This is what the lounge looked like......

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e50bca78_b.jpgUntitled by Jeff Cranwell, on Flickr

Just a few shots to give you an idea. As always if you open them in Flickr you should see them in better quality than just viewing on here.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0d653604_b.jpgMe by Jeff Cranwell, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b45edfcc_b.jpgMe by Jeff Cranwell, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...62a66fbd_b.jpgMe by Jeff Cranwell, on Flickr

Could only do 3/4 full length photos as my lounge is too small to fit my large Hilite backdrop in.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d0730248_b.jpgMe by Jeff Cranwell, on Flickr

Can't wait to shoot 'proper' portraits with the lens, it's brilliant, fantastic for outdoor stuff as well as it is wonderfully sharp shot wide open and with great bokeh :)

Clearly some excellent camera tech you have!

They are just tools to enable me to do my job really.

I’m hoping eventually to be able to have a permanent studio set up.
Would love a garden outside summer house/office type structure to use as a studio.
At the moment, it’s a portable stick it in the car on location job.
My photography needs to earn me a few more penny’s before that becomes a reality though;)

I’ve only ever shot studio stuff once and everything was set up for me so the technical side was a bit lost on me. Studio work (in my opinion) is such a personal subject and for me so much better than a nice landscape. Loved the series on Facebook and ever so envious of your kit!

Cheers Mark,

Once you start to get your head round it there are aspects of studio photography that is actually easier. You are in control of the light and can manipulate it to obtain the results you want.
When you rely on ambient light then you have less control of how that scene is presented.

The most important thing I have learnt is to get rid of that ambient light.
Set your scene up, and then without your lights firing you take shots and adjust your exposure till what you see is a black screen.
Then lock that exposure in making sure your shutter speed doesn't exceed your flash sync speed.
Then introduce one light at a time. Key light usually being the first. Make sure the light from that is correct with your already dialled in exposure and then just repeat the process with the other lights.

Of course, if you have a light meter that should speed the process up considerably......That's next on my wish list ;)

Great studio! :cool: I am also a fan of Canon cameras btw.

When I happened to travel in Spain the whole December-January I made tons of bright photos and on coming home to Breda I decided to create a slideshow dedicated to one of the best holidays in my life :) By the way, do you make slideshows? What program do you use for that purpose? My favourite one is this. Tons of unique transitions, filters and other functions to make the slideshow a masterpiece! Highly recommend!

Sorry for the late reply.

I don't do slide shows myself.

Mostly I print and mount my work as I feel that is the best way to show/preserve images.
If images are for a client then how they receive them is dependent on what they want.

Most of my commercial photography remains in the digital domain as it is used by the client for the purposes of online advertising.

My pet and human portrait photography is a mixture of both, depending on clients wishes.

For my own personal images though I very much like to print and mount them:}