self portrait

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Self portrait. Half winter Half summer.

This is the year when I get to celebrate half of my birthdays on the northern side of the glove. The first half where celebrated on the southern side of the Ecuador, Argentina to be more precise.

Due to the occasion, I thought to make a SELF PORTRAIT showing half of me in a summery look and the other half of my face resembling winter, like a Jack Frost kind of look.

For this project I used a Canon 5D Mrk III with a Canon EF 85mm f 1.8. I used a single light source, which was a Paul Buff Einstein E640 with a large silver beauty dish with a sock “diffuser”. The light was placed high-up  right in from of me, pointing about 45 deg into my face.

The rest was done as you might imagine with Photoshop. A bunch of layers and some hours of moving pixels around.

Thanks for looking. and Happy Holidays to you all.

Half winter Half summer

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Self portrait. One direction.

 

 

 

 

The other day I came across a picture like it and got inspired to do one of me, for me.

The second picture was my first attempt. After I was done, I thought all 3 faces look quite similar, therefore I decided to reshot a few frames with some hats to make the mini me’s a look a bit different.

Here are both versions of my self portrait.

Feel free to comment or ask any questions.

Regards,

Alex

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Image

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Picture of the day. Self family portrait.

I Just did some family portraits with a different look. (CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE LARGER) Taking the pictures for the final image was not too involved (aside from the lack of cooperation from my 3 yr son)  In this series of shots I used one main light to camera right  ( Travelite 750 with a 36″x 48″ Photoflex soft box) on the opposite side (camera left next to the kids) I went with a 48″ x 60″ withe reflector to bounce light and fill in the shadows. I set the camera ( Canon 7D with a EF 24-70 2.8L ) at ISO 100 F9.0 and triggered the strobe with a Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 and a Flex TT5. Later in the shoot I introduced a Canon 580 EXII without diffusion as a hair light to create some separation that was also triggered with a Flex TT5. I set that flash to manual and used a Pocket Wizard AC3 to control the output of that flash.

The overall steps are not to complicated. I used 2 pieces of withe foam core from the arts supply for $5 each. On one I cut a 13″x16″ hole  in the center and the other one was left intact. I First took the pictures of the kids inside the frame and then I took mine holding the board without the cut off. The rest was done in Photoshop using layers.

Thanks for looking

Alex Elias

My family

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Self portrait.

I just got two new color backdrops (bright orange and blue) and wanted to give them a test drive to see what they look like in real life. When I got home the only available live subject that doesn’t mind being photographed for about an hour was me so here it is.

I wanted to darken the bright orange to look deeper. I set the background about 6 feet behind me for the light to fall off quickly.  The main light was a Travelite 750 with a 2×2 Lastolite Easy Box I wanted soft light but not as soft as the 4×6 Photoflex softbox I was thinking of using at first ( the lastolite being a lot smaller and silver inside has a more punchy light) as a secondary light (edge light) I also used a Travelite 750 with an 11″ reflector and a 20Deg  grid for a very harsh and directional light, later on I added a third light for the background and that was a Canon 580EXII that I fit with a small snoot to have a bit of direction.

The main light was on the left side besides me not quite at 90 deg to the camera but way past 45deg  (almost like side lighting) and aiming down at about 45deg. The second light (rim light) was on the far right side behind (make sure when you place this light it does not create glare) I got both lights set to F11 the camera is my Canon 7D with the Canon EF 24-70  2.8 L  ISO 100 and the white balance was set at 5800K.

The one picture I’m pulling my Vampire tooth was shot with a Canon EF-S 10-22 the lighting was the same but the backdrop was a lot closer to me.

PS: for the profile image is best if the subject is not sitting right in line with the center of the light source. Use the edges better. 

Thanks for looking

Alex Elias

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Christmas family photos.

This are some of the Christmas family photos we took of our friends last weekend.  As usual the photo session was fun and hopefully we will do it again for the next season. At the end of the session it turned out a bit into a sports one, I really like them too, like father like son…

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Self portrait Canon 7D Remote shooting

Last night when I came home from work I thought of taking some self portraits from a different angle and this is what I came up with.

I mounted a Canon EFS 10-22 f 3.5-4.5 set the camera to master to trigger the Canon 430EX II flash and the flash was set to manual power and adjusted the power to suit the image at about 1/16th. To trigger the camera I used a remote control Canon RC1.