Self Portrait (Sort of…)

My golden opportunity arrived!  I was being interviewed for The Strand’s, our building complex, quarterly newsletter.  The following is my “self portrait” to show off some of my work and the products I offer, such as the line of “whimsical” frames and designer “Coach-like” quality photo handbags.

For you techies, here is the set up to create this image:

So here’s my thought process for this image.  I wanted to show the buildings and sky in the background as well as show “me” and the products in the foreground.

I first metered for the light coming from the window in the background of the image so the buildings and sky would not get “blown out” (i.e. overexposed) in the final image.  Unfortunately, my light meter was in the “shop” so I had to use the meter in the camera body (not the best method but will do in a pinch).  Wanting to keep a good depth of field (i.e. a wider range of keeping “things” in focus), I set the aperture to f/8 and adjusted the shutter speed until my meter indicated the correct exposure (i.e. middle of the scale).

If I just stayed at this setting, everything in the foreground (including me) would be dark.  So the next part to consider was how to light the foreground.  A Nikon D200 was set up on the tripod and an SB900 Speedlight was placed on the light stand with a shoot through umbrella.  The set up image doesn’t show that the light and umbrella was actually placed higher just above my head pointing slightly downward.   Having the light set up “off camera”, I avoided glare off the products and placing the light slightly above me created a flattering shadow line (see below my chin).

Ta Da!  Let me know what you think!