Selfie Scramble With A Side Of Flash

Cropped Image. 1/1000, F 16.0, ISO 400

My selfies are not a fan favorite. But there are three advantages to being your own subject:

• Your subject is always on time,
• Your subject never complains, and
• Your subject never offers unsolicited suggestions.

These selfies were made from a base exposure of 1/1000 second, F 8.0, and and an ISO setting of 400. I used my tiny FlashQii, triggered with the dedicated wireless trigger. 

Cherubic: That's me. When you make a selfie from arm's length, you could experience some distortion due to foreshortening, that alteration of apparent relationships between near and far subjects. Ideally, the best distance between the photographer and the subject is three feet. This particular image was made at a distance of about eighteen inches, and then cropped to the desired framing. Shooting from a low angle creates its own set of perspective problems. However, this image was presented as an exercise in exposure control, which I'll cover later in this post. I will admit to using a fair amount of editing magic to produce this version.

Managing Backlight: For these shots, the sun was at my back. To prevent lens flare, I position the camera so that the shadow from my head prevented any direct sunlight from entering the lens. This is easier in the early morning because the sun is lower on the horizon. I made this sample shot early in the afternoon when the sun was nearly overhead. As you can see, the shadow cast by my head completely covers the lens itself. And obviously, I would be looking directly into the lens.

Shots On The Fly: You may conclude that the adjustments may not appear logical. In retrospect, these adjustment were made on the fly, and sometimes two adjustments may cancel themselves out. It's simpler to remember that it's the final photo that counts, and that incremental changes will be made with whatever adjustments are available. There are some settings that have a "hard deck":

• Exposure: 1/1000 of a second is the shortest setting that can capture the full output of the small flash I'm using. 1/2000 of a second results in "clipping" part of the flash discharge, resulting in less usable light illuminating your subject.
• Aperture: F 16.0 is the smallest mechanical aperture available to most lenses. Manufactures know that small apertures decrease image sharpness due to diffraction. or the scattering of light as it turns the corner around the edge of the aperture blades. A built in neutral density filter might have helped, if my camera had one.
• ISO: The lowest setting available to my Fuji bodies is ISO 100. 

1/1000, F 16.0, ISO 100

Full Tilt Boogie: This photo was made at the shortest possible exposure. By change the aperture to F 16, I reduced the aperture from F 8.0 to F 16.0, a net loss of two f-stops, or a reduction to one-quarter of my base exposure.  By dropping the ISO value from 400 to 100, I reduced the exposure by another two f-stops. This image is "straight out of camera" (SOOC), with no adjustments whatsoever. The sky is nearly black, as were the shadows cast on my face. This was the ultimate photographie de nuit, made at 8:18 am in the presence of a bright morning sun.

The exposure was made with the sun at my back and I positioned the camera so that the lens was completely shielded from the sun by the shadow of my head. That faint glow was probably from the scattering of light from the atmospheric moister. No dodging or burning, simply au natural.

1/500, F 16.0, ISO 100

This second shot was made after I made a one-stop adjustment to the exposure time. The sky is not as dark, while the flash exposure is pretty much the same. My face does appear brighter, but this could easily be due to a change in the Flash To Subject distance, as absolute consistency is difficult to maintain when you are both the model and the photographer. Being the good subject I didn't complain or offer any unsolicited suggestions.

The Finale: The photo at the top of this post was an attempt to use the sun as my backlight and light my face with a flash bounced off the wall of a white house. Bouncing a flash will usually result in a two to three stop reduction in flash output. I started out at full power and experienced some significantly longer recycle times. The flash batteries were getting a little tired, and I was getting some major underexposure until I realized that I wasn't waiting for the flash to re-charge to full power.

Uncropped Image

One helpful byproduct of bouncing my flash is the expanded surface area of the light source, resulting in soft-edged shadows and enormous catchlights. But there are limits to what you can accomplish in the selfie mode. First off, you are extremely limited to your light placement. You would have to be a contortionist to produce anything other than straight-on butterfly lighting (lighting where the nose shadow appears directly below the nose). If I had an assistant, or even a light stand, I could have been much more creative. Also, this is the best I could do, and from a lighting perspective, it isn't bad. The other problems resulting from the short working distances would be much harder to correct. so for this photo I must remain my smiling, cherubic self. This is the uncropped original.

I have an upcoming self-assignment where I'll be using this exact same camera and flash combination to capture some photographs of parade marchers getting ready to celebrate Gay Pride month in San Mateo. Along with the Fuji X-70 and the little Q20ii flash, I will carry my full kit in case I need a camera system with a little  more juice. We'll see how this all works out. Wish me luck.

Post Script: The parade didn't lend itself to the small camera approach. You can read about it here.