topcat
Posts: 1675
Joined: 1/31/2004
From: Tidewater, VA
Status: offline
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Midear Duane-
Ok, here's a few simple things that can punch up your pics:
1] Backround. either hang a sheet (some of my pics use a shower curtain or a darkblue sheet as a back drop), or pick and interesting backround. Bookshelves are great, but what ever you, clean up the trash, throw in some interesting knick knacks, and you are ready for step two.
2] Lighting. go to the local hardware store and pick up a few clip on lights, the cheap $8.00 ones, and a few 150 watt bulbs ( know the fixtures say 75 watt max, but it will be fine for short periods- just don't leave 'em on and run out to the store or something).
Control the light! what come out will bounce, and fill the other side, which can be ok (I like a more dramatic side lighting, but YMMV), but it might pick up the colors from the far wall and make for funny colored shadows. Also don't mix natural (day light/sunlight) Flash and Incandesent or flouresecnet light sources- most digital cameras will adjust for the best white, but if you mix sources, you'll get funny colored highlights and or shadows. I tend to do it at night, and turn off all the room lights.
the best setup to start with would be two lamps, about ten feet apart, aimed almost stright up at a white ceiling, with the camera about ten feet back from the lights, and your postion just behind a line between the two lights, about two or three feet back. this will give you a good three-D soft lighting, and should leave you well lit with the backround a bit darker. Move yourself and the lights around till you get an effect you like, but leave tha camera in the same place to make things simpler to compare. if you are going for a side light, like in many of my photos, and there is two much 'fill' in the dark areas, hang a dark sheet on that side to absorb the light.
3] camera angle. you have a good side, figure out what it is, and figure out wehater you look better with the camera above or below you, and remember that the camera will likely be a little 'wide angled' which will make the closest part look bigger. want to empaphsis your arms? shoot from bicep level- but it may make your head look a bit small and pointy. Most people look their best with the camera slight hiher than eye level, looking down a bit.
If you look at the pics in my prfile, you'll notice that the camera hight and postion give a very different feel from pic to pic.
A tripod is a great help here, and a small one can be had at Kmart for about ten bucks or less. if you need more hight, stack books or whatever to get it.
4] The model. That would be you.
Put on a nice shirt, for chissakes! or no shirt, but look in a mirror and think about how it looks. A teeshirt almost never really works for most people, but find one that looks good on you , and fits right, and isn't stained ( and you can tailor the fit here and there with binder clip or clothes pin, placed away from the camera, to make the fit a little better.
had a haircut lately? at least make sure you don't have a cowlick, shave or don't shave if you want a bit of a scruffy look and can pull it off (better yet, shoot, shave, shoot, and ask someone elses opinion).
Pose. Think about posture. Look in a mirror and practice smiling- I tend to look either goofy or stern, and I find that if I actually talk to the camera, telling a joke while I wait for the timer to go off, I get a nice natural grin that doesn't look forced. It's also a good trick to get set, look down, close your eyes, relax your face, then look up and smile at the camera. Timing it is tricky, but it gives a certain live feeling to the pic. The candid looking pic on my profile is compleatly staged and I am gesturing and talking to the camera, but it looks relaxed and natural, right? ( I was actually pointing at the camera and saying 'I think you need a good enema!' if I remember correctly<g>)
5] Edit. go through the pics and pick the best, looking for a range of looks- most of the pics I used were chosen from about twenty each, and I discarded the bad light, eyes closed, weird expression ones out of hand, then flip through them and decide which one you like best. Crop it and size it, and copy it to a folder with all your final picks, then go through them to even out the lighting/ exposure values. I have been cropping to a squre format lately for no particular reason, and I size them at 400X400 pixels at 72 pixels per inch, and save them as Jpegs at about 70% quality, which makes them small enough to upload easily.
Good luck
Stay warm,
Lawrence
_____________________________
-there is no remission without blood-
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