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Alexander
Alexander
Azrifel


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Square Crop (Advanced Editing IV)
Camera: Nikon D70
Lens: Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D
Location: home
Date: Mar 5, 2006
Aperture: f/2.0
ISO: 500
Shutter: 1/80s
Galleries: Portraiture, Black and White
Date Uploaded: Mar 5, 2006

 Finally a decent (in my opinion, you'll see that it will win the brown ribbon now that I jinxed it) selfportrait. I had some windmills as well, but I am so tired of them.

I had read in books about Rembrandt, Vermeer and in some portraiture tips that you should use the light of a northern window when you want to use natural light for portraits. So I wanted to try that. Now for a model.... eh.... nobody. Arghh shoot me! And so I did.
Altough I hate being in front of the camera it was actually quite fun to do. I set my camera on a tripod, tried to aim it in the right direction, stand in the right direction and distance and fire the shutter with a Philips universal tv remote that works with the IR receiver of the D70. So I was just moving around and making faces while pushing the button. At first it was a bit akward but I soon got the hang of it. Hardest thing was to get the bored uninterested flat look off my face. I try to look happy here.
Ended up with 40 keepers for future reference (posing do's and dont's). I liked this look the most, it is what I think of as 'me'. And hey, it fitted in a square crop, why not enter it. It looks a bit crappy in the thumb but ok in the big versions.
I wanted to use the 35-70 f/2.8 at first, but it would cause a too slow shutterspeed (or an extra stop of ISO) and is still a bit soft and uncontrasty at f/2.8. So I used the 50 f/1.4 at f/2 instead.
B&W because I like B&W. It is quadtoned because straight b&w looks to harsh.

Alexander is my birthname, Sander is a bit too recognizable.

Setup:
In the 1st floor hallway in front of a northern facing window, closed all the side doors to keep the background dark.
Camera on a tripod, remotely triggered.

Post processing:

Nikon Capture
- Color Mode to Adobe RGB
- Exposure compensation +1 EV
- White balance to Sunlight

Photoshop 6
- Cropped to a square
- Fred Miranda Chroma Noise Reduction
(history brush previous state on the face)
- Fred Miranda B&W Pro: High Contrast B&W default
- Kodak Digital GEM v2.0.0 Noise Reduction on the background only (Highlights to 0, Shadows to 39)
- Mode to Grayscale
- Mode to Duotone
- Quadtoned with
* Black
* Pantone 427 CVC
* Pantone 421 CVC
* Pantone 442 CVC
These are all grey tones.
- Contrast USM on the Lab Lightness channel
- Dodged the white of the eyes a bit (2x 8%)
- Burned the background lightly (app 15%)
- Resampled to 630x630px
- USM 180%, 0.3px, 0
- history brushed 30% of the previous state on the arm of the glasses
- Added border with 2 Canvas enlargements
- Save for the web

2380

Statistics
Place: 170 out of 369
Avg (all users): 5.5238
Avg (commenters): 6.5000
Avg (participants): 5.5504
Avg (non-participants): 5.4815
Views since voting: 783
Views during voting: 286
Votes: 210
Comments: 12
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
Canon EOS-5D
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L USM
 04/23/2007 04:30:59 AM
:) I also read about the northern light, buyt I use all the windows I can find. it is so little light here in Norway so it's good I find at least some:)
wonderful portrait!! you should shoot yourself more often I think:)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
Canon EOS-70D
Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM
 03/12/2006 10:11:47 PM
Nice portrait.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-20D
Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
 03/12/2006 09:09:51 PM
Very nice character study.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-7D
Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
 03/09/2006 08:03:49 PM
great image. the contrast betweenthe pale skin and the dark ground. works well.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
 03/07/2006 07:35:06 PM
Nice shot but maybe just a bit too centered.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D50
Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED
 03/07/2006 02:24:15 PM
okay?...
Canon EOS-20D
Canon EF 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM
 03/06/2006 10:23:24 PM
Good job! The lighting is just little too harsh on the left side of his face. (I did double check the light bar at the bottom.)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
 03/06/2006 04:58:43 PM
Nice portrait. Eyes are shark and expressive. Lighting is great.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Pentax K10D
Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical HF for Pentax
 03/06/2006 07:15:33 AM
Is he one of your co-workers, Rikki? ;-)
Canon Canon 1d x Mark II
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM
 03/06/2006 03:12:34 AM
Put yer finger in yer ear Az!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D800
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
 03/06/2006 01:49:36 AM
great shot...just a bit too centred for me, a better composition would lift this
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-5D
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
 03/06/2006 01:17:45 AM
what a cutey :-) wonderful black and white tones, great DOF...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
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