I decided to do a self-portrait with the inspiration from the Ridley Scott’s Sci-Fi movie Alien Covenant. I found a location which is close to where I take a walk from day to day. I noted the time of day when I thought I would go and shot my idea. It would seem that 6.30pm was when the sun would be behind the backdrop that I was to stand in front of as this would give a great back light to work with. The back light would also help me, the subject to stand out away from the background to give separation from background and subject. I would then flash fill with a portable strobe. Something that could cranked up the fill light not just a small battery flash. I would use my ring light as it puts out about 400 watts and as I only needed about 100 watts it would be perfect as I can dial it down to use just 100 watts. I used one of my Canon cameras which has a swing out screen so I could see the shot’s I was taking. The camera would also be on a timer, set to take one shot each 30sec. That would give me time to move into each pose as the shots were being taken. My f stop was 6.3 and speed was 1/250 ISO 100. I use a 50mm STM lens.
As for my outfit, I found some cool pair of pants in a store that had some sort of shiny dark blue look. I had a black top that was very hip with a nice zipper up the front at the neck. I went and found a black belt which I could put a small pouch on and I had a vest that I use for when I am shooting bands at concerts. It has a great look and is also in black, all I needed was a hat which I had from actor Keven Costner it was given to my parents at his wedding, on the back of the hat is the date of his wedding anniversary. You don’t see that date in the shot but that makes for a good part in my story. I also got a light machine gun, it looked very nice and new but I wanted to have some age on it so that is what I did I aged it down so it would look like it had some use. Once I had it all together I went out to the location and took the shots. It went like a charm and as you can see the final image, it came out just as I wanted it too.
