When my parents came to visit, the place they stayed had a balcony, something which my apartment doesn't have. I figured I could use it as a location to take a self-portrait.
This was taken using my 1970s Pentacon 135mm f/2.8 lens, as it's by far the best lens for bokeh that I have. The camera was tripod-mounted, looking out towards the balcony and the city lights beyond. I sat on the balcony for this shot -- 135mm on a crop-sensor camera is quite a long focal length, so I had to be a good distance away even for this head-and-shoulders portrait.
Exposure was set for the city lights -- I settled on ISO 800 at 1/5th of a second. I didn't want to go much longer than that as it would have picked up my motion. Fill light was provided by two radio flashes, one slightly off-axis to give the catch light in my eyes, and one 90 degrees to my right, being held out of the window by my Dad (26 floors above the street!)
Of course, with all this going through my head, and wondering whether both flashes were going to fire (my radio triggers fall into the 'cheap' rather than 'reliable' category), I had rather a distant smile in a lot of the shots I took. This is probably the best of the bunch.
I would have preferred a softbox on the off-axis flash, but I don't have one, and even if I did, it wouldn't have fitted through the window!
I'm a British software developer and photographer living in Vancouver, BC. I mainly photograph landscapes, cityscapes, night scenes, and water.
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What beautiful background! Wish I had a lens as nice. Thanks for the insights as to what is going on here I learn a lot from you every time we interact, although perhaps not always agreeing. :)
wonderful selfie... beyond mind boggling about the light! i think one reason i avoid portraiture is because there are just too many variables i have to worry about controlling, and i am loathe to control the one variable i theoretically can - the subject ;p
I am sure the subject is your mother's treasure!
Very nice bokeh - but I still prefer the pic with the hat. :)