MMS 173 Assignment 5b: Self-Portraiture

Ad Jesum per Mariam

To Jesus, through Mary. As a devout catholic who grew up learning the values of the Virgin Mary, my relationship with Catholicism is truly a personal one. Up until this day, I find myself cradled in the arms of Mother Mary and her faithful intercession to Jesus strengthens my soul. In this self-portrait assignment, I aimed to embody her characteristics: humility, obedience, devotion, and love.

Table of Contents

I. Headshot and Candid shot

VI. Photoset (bonus part!)

I. Headshot and Candid shot

Headshot

ISO 200 ; f/4 ; 1/200

Candid shot

-0.3 Exposure ; ISO 200 ; f/4 ; 1/200

II. Pre-production

When I was brainstorming this assignment, I really wanted to showcase who I am and without any fabrication. I had no intention in buying more props or clothes just so I could bring my vision to life, because I wanted to use what I already have at home. Though buying more props would be beneficial, but I just really wanted to challenge myself and find meaning into my own clutter.

Mostly everyone who knows me personally knows that I love being showy about my love for Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and my faith. It is just something that comes naturally to me. Therefore, that became the inspiration for my self-portrait.

Before I executed the idea, I made a board in Pinterest a week before my desired date of shoot. I wanted it to be dark and eerie, yet comforting in a way because that kind of concept really resembled the idea I had in mind: Faith as the light in the dark.

Everything that you can see on the portrait is owned by me. The rosary, the 'Imitation of Christ' book, the veil, and the cross necklace.

By utilizing my own items for the shoot made it seem more authentic and personal to me.

III. The set up

I decided not to use any lighting equipment because I wanted to utilize the flash on my Nikon D3000, but I had the lights turned off so that when the camera captures a photo, it would really show the darkness of the area, while illuminating myself as the subject.

Camera setting was put to Aperture-priority auto mode so that I have more control in the light that reaches my lens, with a 5s timer. I didn't have any remote so I had to click and pose every shot. I also used an exposure of -0.3 with a slow flash on my candid shot. All of my photos were captured in landscape because if I wanted to crop, it would give me more flexibility and space to do my desired poses.

IV. Post-processing

Since my photos were captured in landscape, I decided to crop them so that I could focus more on myself being the subject. I cropped my headshot into a square frame, and my candid shot into a 4:3 frame.

I lowered the contrast on both shots, brought the highlights to a higher level to truly illuminate the light that was reflected on my eyes and veil. I also put the shadows at a very low level to bring a sense of darkness into the shot. I tweaked the temperature to lean slightly more into warm tones, while lowering the texture to bring in a little bit of softness on my skin. Lastly, a vignette was also added to bring more contrast from the background to the subject.

V. Reflection

I've never really thought about doing a self-portrait before because my Nikon D3000 doesn't come with a live view therefore, I can't really connect it to my laptop to have a bigger screen on what my lens is seeing. I also didn't have any remote to click the shutter button, so it took me more than an hour to get satisfied with the output, but this was an experience I'd definitely remember and one thing is for sure, I will surely do this again.

It was a very tedious process because preparation and planning took me a lot of days, and sometimes it just so happens that your camera does not capture the way you intend it to be, some photos were too blurry, too overexposed, too grainy, and well... too close to my face.

I am pretty much confident that I was able to showcase the emotions and vibe that I intended to show, but there is plenty room for improvements, and I totally love that because it meant that I am still able to move forward and improve my skills on this type of photography. Surely, there will always be the right time for everything.

VI. Photoset (bonus part!)

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