I've never seen a photo of myself I've liked all that much and have always avoided them. I figure I need to get more photos of myself to put on my social media so that I don't come across as a serial killer. Also, I'm only ever getting older, so I should take some photos before I wrinkle and bald and regret not capturing any of my youth.

I went out for close to three hours the other day to take some photos of myself. Since I tend to shoot on film, I decided to use my cellphone instead, so that I could review the photos right away and take a million of them and pick the good ones. I don't even have a proper tripod for cellphones. It's more of a selfie stick that can turn into a tripod so short that I have to find some higher surface like a park bench to balance it upon.

I haven't even been able to go through all the photos I took to select the best ones because I just cringe looking at them. I just dislike looking at myself so much. Also, I don't know how to expose outdoor portraits properly. At first, I was somewhat underexposed. So I decided to open the aperture, and I got photos where my face was more visible, but the black clothes I was wearing were so overexposed that they looked a washed out grey. Sky of course blew out, too.

It was only after shooting that I realized that my phone can shoot in RAW. So, I'm left with JPEGs that I can't even fix in post (not that I know Lightroom, seeing as I've always shot film.

I know that you can use things like GND filters and photography lights to properly expose for your subject without blowing the sky, but when you're just trying to take some quick shots, especially with a cell phone… I have no idea how to expose properly in that context.

Have you had much of a go at capturing your face with a longer focal length?

See this, for example, where the first was taken with a standard 24mm cellphone lens and the second with a 105mm (all other conditions held constant):

Weird as it may feel in broad daylight, chucking on the flash can be a good way of lighting the foreground without having any impact on the sky, etc. It's particularly handy on overcast days and can add "drama" on a stormy one.

I say all these things as a person that's never once taken a decent photo of themselves.

I'll try that. I'd need a pretty bright flash to make a different in the daytime, right?

I wouldn't have been able to do that this last time because the camera was never close enough to me for a flash to reflect off of me (I had to perch it wherever was convenient, which was usually quite a ways from the object I wanted to pose by), but this should come in handy for when I'm using a proper set-up. I've also been thinking about getting off-camera photography lights for the same reason.

Even though I dislike all photos of myself, I like the ones I've taken by myself better than the ones others have taken of me.

thank you all for your feedback on the text, very much appreciated

i clarified that i love the ring and want it like that, and it's seemingly on the list to get done [lots to work on production wise for the song]

i'm really excited for this band - i've never ever got along with people this well before, both socially and musically. [and they're not even exactly down my alley on music! - more math rocky vs shoegaze/indie/SP stuff]. i'm actually looking forward to meeting up

i was super sad this morning so i didn't bother putting any make-up on my face for work and i think i'll just do that every day now.

;_;

damn, that sucks. sorry to hear that.

Don't give up looking good! It lifts your spirit

You've never met?

How did you start playing with them, and how does that work? Do you record yourself and send them files?

I STILL LOOKED GREAT. i took a shower and steamed my top so i didn't go in looking disheveled or nothin' :beatup:

You may be surprised by whatever you've already got, but I suppose these things always require experimentation.

I've gone on about this quite a bit before, but filtering out the polarised light is another solid (and relatively inexpensive) way of keeping those skies from washing out when you're trying to stay open for the foreground. I do recall that Julian didn't have much joy with this suggestion, but my CPL very rarely comes off.

Just to stray onto a bit of a tangent, here – have you ever messed around in black and white with a red filter attachment?

There's something very "forgiving" about it and you end up looking like you've spent some hard hours covered in cucumber slices at a day spa.

sorry, i guess i worded that weird. we've met and we play and record together - i meant for every consecutive band thing on my calendar, i'm actually excited instead of dreading it

haha the pain is real

don't let boring mainstream norms dictate your life, maaaaaaan.

i'm going to be 40 soon and i'm very okay with never being seen as sexy again or never having sex again

this is what i keep telling myself

her: what do you do for fun

me: i read books and shitpost

her: is that it?

me: sometimes i go to a park and read books?

I do have a new M.O.

For the next year I'm only going to buy clothes from Walmart

I'm recessionmaxxing

26 in august. also when i lose my health insurance [wooo america]

just do not care anymore about sex. it's kind of like how as a kid you fantasize about playing in the majors.

then you're like....i'm not an athlete

you late in august? virgo?

this is very funny

thank you

virgo. auggie 30

yooooo

Hell yeah, Waltonpilled

i bought a pair of pants and a shirt from walmart in 2005 that i would buy again to this day. the pants were pullon black demin pants and the shirt was yellow with the image of birds flying away and had the words 'let's get out of here' on it.

i mean, i bought clothes from walmart other times as a youngin' when my mom used to grocery shop there before she boycotted it forever.

I saw a shirt there the other day that said "you assumed i was normal - that's on you"

glorious

simply love attitude shirts

this also stems from last year when I saw a perfect beautiful angel poking through the discount DVD bin - a walmart brand fitness goth

a perfect combination of white trash and dignity

my stats have never recovered. it's not helping i've been listening to nothing but contemporary country music radio the past couple of weeks.

"inside you there are two wolves"

95% of my kids' clothes come from Walmart. A onesie is a onesie, I'm not spending more than $6 for something that is going to be spit up on, shit in, and and ran through the literal dirt. My older kid has gotten plenty of compliments on all the sparkly stuff I've found there.