Stuck at Home Alone During Lockdown? Try These Creative Self-Portrait Ideas With Strobes

At this point, it's fair to say that all of us have felt a touch of cabin fever over the past year, and with lockdowns/restrictions still in place all over the world, it's all the more important to keep the mind and body active, not least of all, the creative mind. This video has a few nice ideas for you to try with some basic gear.

Portrait photographer Irene Rudnyk is in beautiful, snowy Ukraine giving some tips and theme ideas for self-portraits. Of course, the techniques in the video can be applied to any photoshoot — not just self-portraits — but as many of us find ourselves alone these days, it's nice to have some extra goals to work towards. Even if you're not too enthusiastic about photographing yourself, you can use this as an opportunity to experiment and learn.

As with most of Rudnyk's photography, it's a themed shoot, and here, she has chosen to work with what she has by creating a period scene of a girl in traditional garb who's making her way through the snow. Using a Godox AD200 as a backlight and shooting with a Canon R5 and RF 85mm f/1.2 lens, she makes the best of the available ambient light. Shooting during blue hour allows her to get the right balance between highlights, shadows, and her warm oil lamp. This also results in some naturally complementary colors. For the second shot, she takes her gear inside, but I won't spoil it for you. Watch the video to see her beautiful results, all the while using low-powered flashes and a couple of simple hacks.

Have you taken any self-portraits during the past year?

Mike O'Leary's picture

Mike is a landscape and commercial photographer from, Co. Kerry, Ireland. In his photographic work, Mike tries to avoid conveying his sense of existential dread, while at the same time writing about his sense of existential dread. The last time he was in New York he was mugged, and he insists on telling that to every person he meets.

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2 Comments

Oh...you must have been one of those selfishly out spreading Covid so that the rest of us couldn't get out and shoot.

Are you sure about that? Did you already forget how you were clearly stuck at home with nothing better to do than troll the comments on Fstoppers?