Self-Portraits

Self-Portraits

I wanted to create a self-portrait that didn't show my entire face to be used as a new profile picture for social media. Almost all my artwork include plants or flowers in some way or another, so I wanted to incorporate flowers into the portraits.

Camera (Panasonic Lumix ZS99)
Mini desktop tripod
Cell phone (for remote control and photo editing)
Fresh and dried flowers
Reading lamp
Translucent file folder
Room divider with shawl as background

I set up my camera on my desk with a mini tripod. I was sitting on a desk chair with a floor lamp beside me and a room divider behind me. I was facing a large window but when I was experimenting with translucent sheets, I ended up with reflections, so I closed my window blinds for most of the images. I took over 80 photos in one sitting. Most of them were quite dark. I edited the chosen raw files on the computer with PhotoScape X and then did a bit more editing with the jpegs on the phone using VSCO and Snapseed.

My photos using a translucent materials didn't turn out well, but I like the two experimental ones below. The first image is the result of a brown glass vase with a few dried flower stems in front of the camera. The second is the long-exposure photo. I like the softness and the movement of the image, even though all my long-exposure images were kind of overexposed (white shirt and white background probably didn't help). The third image and the one above use flower props and light from the reading lamp for a bit of glow and shadow.