First and foremost, I am NOT a portrait photographer! However, I recently purchased a Godox ad300 for my architectural and interior work and decided I would try it out on some head shots. This is a self portrait I set up in my small home office against a grayish wall.

I watched a couple of Peter Hurley videos a while ago and tried to base the "style" off of that. I used two constant lights. I used my Ad300 as a constant light, instead of a flash, with a soft box and then a small LED panel light as well to light my face. I just experimented with the lights in different positions and different distances from my face. I used my camranger to make things a little easier but this was kind of a pain to set up and do all of this myself. I also experimented with different expressions and trying to do the "squinch" as Peter puts it. I let my wife pick which expression she liked best and this was the one she picked.

I did a black and white edit because my gray wall was kind of ugly and I think this fixed that. I tried to use another flash to make the back ground black or darker but I couldn't figure it out, I don't think I had enough room in my small office maybe? I think the flash needed to be behind me and in front of the wall but I didn't have room for that? Anyways, I figured I'd put myself portrait to the test in this contest.

3 Comments

Perfect for a small company's staff line-up

Feedback: Overexposed teeth and shirt. Underlighting might have been tried. There seems to be a flash from the right. Or a LED as you said in your comments from the right. Good detail in the hair. i gave 2

Thats fair. And I actually appreciate it. As I said I’m not a portrait guy nor do I desire to be. Just thought I’d join the contest. Next time for portraits I’ll probably just pass.

Contest Submissions

Click on the thumbnails below to comment and rate each image.

Click here to learn about the Fstoppers rating system and what each star value means.