Sunday 1 February 2009

Narcissism Strikes

Narcissism strikes - again. I can't believe I'm posting this on Flickr, and now, on my blog as well...

This morning before setting off for the library to study, I suddenly felt like taking a shot of myself. My previous self-portrait was kind of crappy so I needed something more, erm, decent. Besides, I haven't got many chances to try out my Canon EF 50mm F1.4. What could be a better subject, if not, me?

I managed to hastily make out some space in my crammed room, set up the camera and shot away. I have no idea how much time I spent on this; I don't want to know. But anyways, this is the final result, after some post-processing on Photoshop CS3.

Narcissism Strikes!
Even at an aperture of F2.8, the lens did a good job of blurring out the background. It was just a white wallpaper anyway. Still, I had to remove a partial shadow cast by the bookshelf nearby. Things would be so much better if I could dedicate part of the room for photo shooting. But unfortunately, that is not the case - I'm a poor ryuugakusei, mind you.

Photoshop
  • Duplicated the background layer and added 'gaussian blur'
  • Removed the partial shadow cast by the bookshelf
  • Increased 'brightness' level
  • Increased 'saturation' (reds) to slightly make the photo look warmer
  • Applied 'vignetting' to brighten the background

2 persons flung their shoes:

harisu sama said...

wow..
poor ryuugakusei but got 50mm f1.2!!!

Kryptos said...

uh-oh. i made an embarrassing mistake. it's f1.4. u know there's no way is this poor ryuugakusei going to be able to afford an L lens XO