The Special K Files: The Evolution of a Profile Pic

A while back, I set out to update my profile pic on Facebook with a new photo. I didn't know exactly what I wanted but I had an idea that I wanted something a little... edgy.

It took a bit of work but I finally managed to get a pic I was happy with. A few people have asked me how I went about taking this photo so I figure I'd share it with them.

Then I rememberd that I had a blog...

NEW POST!!!

I haven't been happy with my Facebook profile picture for a while now. It's always the same thing; find and old pic, crop the hell out of it and put it up (except for the few times you stick up some random image you found on the web like Halloween, Christmas, When Rob Ford gets caught smoking "crack"... you know, the usuals....). I've always wanted a better pic. Then I thought to myself;

"Hey, I have a camera. I've got lights. I've got a face... why don't I take my own pic!"

Easy right? Unfortunately for me, that's when the OCD usually kicks in. I wasn't gonna be happy with any old pic. Mine had to be... edgy! (or as edgy as a mid 40's guy with thinning hair and no real sense of style could be.)

First up I needed a location. Somewhere dark. I've always been a fan of Low Key Lighting. On the bright side, if you do it right, you don't need anything special in the way of location, you can do it pretty much anywhere. The trick is to make it so only the lights that you want to use are exposing the image. Sound difficult? Actually it's not...

Needs more cowbell...

This was my first test. As you can see, there's still way too much light. I shot it at f/5.6 at about 1/10th of a second (ISO 250... I screwed that one up a bit. Had I dropped it down to 200; my camera's native ISO, It would have been even darker). So what's a fellow to do? Make my aperture even smaller (raise the F Stop; bigger number means smaller opening) So I dropped it down even farther. Finally hit the sweet spot around f/16. At that point none of the ambient light in the room was effecting the image (I'd post the pic but it's pretty much just a blank frame...)

Next problem on the list; how do you take a picture of yourself if you're the subject? Well in that case you need some kind of assistant. Meet my assistant....

Don't laugh; he works cheap....

My assistant...

Why do I need a foam head on a stick you ask? Well, if you're in front of the camera instead of the usual place, it's kind of hard to check lighting and focus. That's where Mr (or Mrs, I never thought to ask...) Foam Head on a Stick comes in. You set him (or her) up where you plan to be, set up your lights, focus and snap. If you like what you see, the next step is pretty simple, just replace FH on a S with yourself (a large X on the ground helps) and you've got a pretty reasonable idea of what the pic is gonna look like.

Of course now you need to figure out some way of taking the pic without actually being behind the camera. That part is actually pretty easy. The simplest way is to set up the camera on a tripod and use the self timer function. Pretty much every camera out there has it.

If that doesn't work for you, you could also invest in a wired remote (about $40 at Henry's). The only problem with these is that the cord usually isn't long enough to do what you want. They also make wireless versions for certain cameras (I actually have both for mine). That's what I used for this.

Basic Camera Setup

For lighting, I wanted to keep it simple.

I said earlier I wanted to use low key lighting, so I broke out one of my speedlight and attached it to a light stand.

I also have a 2x2 soft box thats made specifically for flash. I set up the whole shebang (that's a technical term) and started to experiment. With the shutter speed so low, I needed the flash to be fast. I dropped it way down to about 1/32 power which also means I had to move it in real close, practically on top of me. The soft box diffuses the light and allows it to wrap around me a little more than a bare flash would. Here's what the basic setup looks like:

So after all that, what do you end up with? Something like this:

Mr. Badass!

Not Bad! But it's still missing a little something. Time to pull out my secret weapon (and I'm not referring to the one in my hand)...

Lightroom!

So first things first, I open the image in Lightroom.

I decide early on I want the image to be black and white so I convert to that. I added a red filter because it brings out a lot more contrast in the image. I bump up the contrast and then the exposure by 1/3 of a stop (need that to compensate for the extra contrast). I lift the shadows and hi lights a little until I'm happy. Last up I take the clarity waaaay up; that adds a lot of texture to the image.

After that I sharpen and de-noise to taste.

In the end, I did actually crop the final image (the gun was distracting and with it being in black and white, it didn't show up all that well anyway).