Is it just me or are you learning so much from Elena’s Selfie Saturday tutorials? Considering that this week’s Shoot and Edit Photo Challenge theme is Couples or Self-Portraits, I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about how to better set up my shots. I’m sure that Jill will have even more tips for us on Monday – although I’m not looking forward to sharing a SOOC shot.
Last week’s lesson was all about arm’s length self-portraits or as someone so eloquently called them, the “MySpace” photo. My sister is the master of the arm’s length selfie. I won’t link up her Facebook profile, but I can promise you that it’s filled with these types of shots. She’s even managed to get my mom and dad in the frame with her on occasion.
Anyways, after reading Elena’s tutorial this week, I was prepared to give it a try. In fact, I even spent a little extra time on my eye make up.
My original intent was to use the trees along the walking trail behind our office buildings as my backdrop (Tamron 28-75mm f/3.2 using Aperture Priority Mode). Although I got one shot worth sharing, I felt like my lighting was off because I kept squinting…and what’s with the smirk on my face? I tried again from a different angle, but I lost my pretty background (actually…that’s not completely true – you’ll see two more shots from this session next week). So, I got in my car and drove over to a space that provided a nice clean background.
Granted this is the completely edited version, but it’s what I think I look like…does that make sense? There are times where I look at myself in the mirror and think, “yeah girl, you got it going on,” and then a picture is taken of me and I think, “gosh, I look horrible!” Thanks to Photoshop, I can recreate the image I see in the mirror.
By the way, can you tell I’m experimenting with my processing? I recently purchased Florabella’s Luxe II collection. I haven’t quite found my favorite recipe, but I’m enjoying them. Also, as a result of getting third place in The Paper Mama‘s Valentine’s Photo/Card challenge…I won a $75 gift certificate to The Album Cafe. Since I don’t do much in the way of photo albums or large scale collages, I purchased several “blog-it” sets. I think they’re kinda fun to change things up every once in a while.
With that said, check out more arm’s length selfies at:
Have a great weekend. Don’t forget to vote for your FAVORITE Love Letter to Kitty Paw.
I’ll see you tomorrow for Scavenger Hunt Sunday!
