Birthday Photo Shoot!
Today I turn 29 years old! I am excited about what this year holds for me as I close out a decade. I’ve learned so many things in my 20s that I thought I already knew. One of my biggest takeaways is that the only way to continuously enjoy this life is to seek out new experiences. So for my birthday I pursued the brand new experience of Self Photography.
I never feel comfortable when in front of a camera. I’m not sure if this means I look awkward all of the time in life or if all of the awkward comes out when a camera is present. So I attempted to conquer this fear to be successful in this endeavor. I currently have a Canon T6i Rebel Camera. One of my favorite features with this camera is being able to link my viewfinder with my cell phone through the Canon Camera Connect app. I was able to see myself in real time to figure out what angles I preferred. Another tactic I used was to take a ton of pictures. My memory card had the space so I played a game of odds; if I take 100 pictures at least 5 should be cute. One note for improvement, when using the phone as a clicker and viewfinder, grab a clutch to use as a prop to help hide that you’re holding your phone. A clutch also helps give you something to do with awkward hands!
In addition to using the phone as a clicker, I also took advantage of the self timer and multi-shutter feature. This is how I was able to capture the confetti shots. I started with the 10 second timer to make sure I was able to hold on to my confetti and place myself in front of the camera. Then I used the multi-shutter feature to take multiple shots as I blew the confetti towards the camera. It helps to eliminate the need for trying to time the confetti blow perfectly. This is also a great trick to use for jumping photos!
For my backdrop, I wanted to create a party vibe. I went to the fabulous Dollar Tree and found a holographic table cloth. I grabbed three table cloths. Two for the wall backdrop that I hung with painters’ tape. One to place on the floor to provide the full backdrop effect. Extending the backdrop to the floor is vitally important. If the back drop is simply on the wall, the illusion is broken at the floor. This limits your space to move around the set and adjust perspective to the camera. To nail in the END of my 20s I added a few balloons on the floor to represent the party ending.
Once I was able to snap a lot of photos, I went through my RAW files. All of them needed to be cropped because the garage was visible in the frame and took away from the pictures looking like portraits. I also played with the brightness, contrast, and saturation levels to create pictures that fully captured my intent. I am most accustomed to editing photos on my phone so I used the VSCO app. The photos below highlight what the editing process looks like for me. I started with just the cropped image. Next I wanted to give the images a dark vibe, so I used a preset and boosted saturation. After looking at this image it was cool, but I didn’t pop enough against the backdrop. The final two images showcase how I played with subtleties of hues to make sure that I stood out best. The only advice I would offer for editing is to move slowly. The third image shows what happens when I pushed all the sliders to where I thought I wanted them. It is visually interesting, but I preferred the results from when I made incremental changes. Another note when editing batches of photo with similar lighting, copy the editing recipe and apply it to all of the other photos. You can still make minor tweaks as needed but this will help the photos appear consistent and the final result appear more professional.
Overall I was really pleased with this experience. While I am still extremely awkward in photographs, I feel that this photo series is a great start to year 29. I can’t wait to see what other new experiences await me. Let me know in the comments what experiences you’d suggest before I end my 20s.
