Ok, more questions, again... I'm new to black and white photography so please remember that I don't know too much about ALL the technical aspects of photography- although I am a videographer so I can understand SOME of the technicalities.

Now, here are the questions... I would like to do a series of self portraits (for experiemental purposes), but will not always have the capability to have someone sit in for metering, etc. How can I do this without the ability to meter myself? Is that at all possible? (I suppose I could put the camera on "auto" but that doesn't assist me learning anything) How would I go about framing? Also, can anyone suggest a good film for such an experiment?

By the way I am using a Nikon N-50 and have a 35-80 lens as well as a 70-300 lens with Macro... Also, I will be trying to use existing light in different situations... Indoors, outdoors, whatever... I'd like to do some close-ups and some medium shots... maybe even some with really loose framing... And a mixture of high contrast and soft lighting.

Ok, one more request for the guru's here at Black and White... Could anyone suggest some experiments or "lessons" so that I can get a better grasp on using my camera with existing lighting and some that would help me "think out of the box" to form a style of my own. Again, I am VERY new to non-point-and-shoot photography but I LOVE it and I've loved some of the images I have gotten. However, I am not translating what I see in my minds eye to the film.

ANY and ALL suggestions would be appreciated...

-- Kristy Kennedy-Black (kblack@tpi-qdg.com), March 23, 1999

Answers

Kristy, you asked about ten different questions and I don't think there is enough space to answer them all thoroughly.

1. Self-portrait (focusing)

One way to take a sucessful self-portrait is to use a stand-in to compose the shot. A stand-in can be "anything" (lamp, wall unit, chair, etc. )that will enable you to focus your camera. I would also use a small f-stop (f-11, f-16, f-22) to obtain good depth-of-field)so that you have some room to manuever within the scene.

2. Metering

You can either use your camera's meter and point at the area in which you intend to sit. Or you can use a handheld meter from the position where you will be. Make certain to accurately meter the important parts of the image (i.e. face). Try to determine where your head will be in the image and meter that area.

3. Framing.

Again, with the stand in, you can get a general idea of what will be in the image. Of course different poses will change the composition and there is no way of pre-determining the outcome. The small f-stop will enable you to move around the scene while keeping in focus. You will probably want a head and shoulder shot, which would dictate a 90mm to 135mm lens. As you get longer lenses (150mm-300mm), the depth of field becomes shallower and makes pre-visualization very difficult.

4.Out of the box thinking

The only advise that I can suggest is to take lots and lots and lots and lots of pictures. It's just like any other art form, you get better with practice.

Harold Todman

-- Harold Todman (htodman@yahoo.com), March 23, 1999.

Go to a fairly complete photo store and ask them for a gray card. It will come with instructions for its use. Meter off the gray card to get your exposure right. As far as focusing where you are going to be, place an extra tripod or a stick or something where you will stand and focus on that. For film, you are asking a lot. Different films give totaly different results and are appropriate for different settings. For instance pushing a fast film and developing it for grain gives a completely different result than shooting a slow film and developing in very fine grain developer. I do both for portraits and figure studies depending on what I am trying to end up with. So my advise is to try lots of different films and see what you like. For starters try TMAX 3200 for a fast film. Shoot it at about EI 1600. For a slow film try Ilfords PanF. For lessons, acquire yourself a willing victim and do a series of portrait sittings and try out lots of variations in lighting. Try at least two different films (or more). Then get them to submit to letting you photograph their stomach. Zoom into their stomach and belly button (use a woman or an unhairy male for this and maybe have then very lightly rub in some lotion or baby oil into their skin) and repeat the experiments with various placements and positions of the light and various fims. Use this series of shots to figure out how light reflects off of skin. Using the stomach and belly button for this gives you a nice big area of relatively flat skin with some contours on it so you can discern difference in the character of the light and not have it all hidden in details. Then go out and photograph a stick. Find a big stick with sticky outy bits and shoot it from all possible angles. Over expose, underexpose, expose right on. See how much detail in the shadows changes between the various exposures. Maybe play with filters of various colors in your flower garden to see how intensity changes are different for different colors. Basically burn lots of film and critically go over the results to see the effects that your variations had. Keep good records early on so when you have a negative in hand you know what it was you did to get it the way it is.

-- Fritz M. Brown (brownf{DHWTOWERS/TOWERS3/brownf}@dhw.state.id.us), March 23, 1999.

Get an old polaroid folding camera, a 180 or 190 or a 114a or b. Be sure it has a self timer and is fully adjustible (f-stop/shutter).

You will learn very quickly what kind of light you like.

Because of the limitations of minimum focusing distance and fixed lens, a set of cropping "L"s will help determine what focal length lens you will want on your 35mm, when you change to "real" film.

Definately use the focusing surrogate, I use a light stand. You can set it up with the top at the height of the top of your head, and put a piece of tape to correspond with where your eyes will be, mark the bottom of the frame with another piece of tape. The grey card's a good idea too.

Just making self portraits for a while is assignment enough, do it when you have intense feelings, not just when you feel good. make notes about what's happened to you and what you're thinking about when you make the pictures. Use artificial light, reflected light, hard light, in the rain, at night by street light, neon signs, make notes about this too (on the polaroids, if you decide to try that). Don't worry too much about using automatic settings, you have to learn how to interpret them too, then you can make self portraits anywhere. Take your camera everywhere you go, make a self portrait on the way, and when you arrive and when you leave ....t

-- tom meyer (twm@meteor.com), April 01, 1999.

One suggest I didn't see here that works well is shoot alone. Do not ask anyone along. You'll probably get better than you bargained for.

-- Red Spirit (nagiluta@netscape.net), April 25, 1999.

I may have missed something, but did anyone suggest that you use manual (M) settings to do your self-portraits. Everything else suggested will get you to the right focus, but only the recommendation about the gray card will get you the right exposure in manual mode. If I missed some one else's suggestions, --never mind!

-- Michael Purcell (photog@zipcon.net), June 24, 1999.