As part of a personal challenge during quarantine, I decided to create some self-portraits at home. It has been quite enjoyable using natural light as you may have seen from my previous post on this topic. In this post, I will discuss how I created this image and how I put the shot below altogether.
One light self portrait taken on a Nikon D800. Exposure 1/60 at f/8.
Equipment
I used the Profoto A1 which is, an outstanding piece of kit. It allows modifiers to be attached magnetic, which is a dream. Simply pop on a grid or a coloured gel, and you're good to go!
I mounted this on the Magmod OCF Magshoe which I invested in after unwisely using a cheaper hot shoe mount for my Profoto A1. I was out shooting with The Creative Eye Photographers, our workshop group. With such events, you are moving around a lot, and any sudden movements can result in unfortunate things happening to equipment! Fortunately, whilst the A1 fell (pretty hard), it was only got a few scratches, but I didn’t put it back up on that cheaper mount again!
I absolutely swear by the MagMod, it is a well designed and solid piece of kit. You’ll hear everyone say it, if you have bought photography, don’t cheap out on accessories!
Profoto A1
Magmod OCF Magshoe
Manfrotto Stand
Bringing it altogether
For this image, I wanted to create something dramatic. Before switching off the lights in the room, and I had placed my camera on a tripod to the right and tested a few shot using the timer function. Once I had something sharp I turned off all the lights and then took the shot. The first few attempts didn’t quite work and as I needed to adjust the power from the Profoto A1. I finally settled on a low setting (3.5) and then took this shot. I like the sliver of light coming through the door and how it gives just enough light on me to provide the viewer with a sense of depth and scale. The mood is also appropriate for the image taken.