Scary Self Portraits, Part 2. The importance of mood.

I recently realized that I when I listen to music I respond waaaayyy more to the mood a song creates than I do to its lyrics. I always hear how the vocals are sung and never hear what’s being said. Maybe that’s why I like metal?

It didn’t take too long for me to understand I react the same way to photographs.

And as you know, light controls most of the mood of a photo. Sure, so does body language, but when the two meet…

So, these are test shots. I was working on super controlled, film noirish lighting. Like the first Scary Self Portrait post I wanted the eyes to go entirely black, with the exception of two small, piercing, catch lights, made, this time, with an underpowered, tightly gridded monolight. The key light in the above photo is pointed down, off my right shoulder.This picture only uses one gridded mono light, positioned directly underneath my camera & pointed up. The grid is so tight & focused none of the shadow hits the wall.This one is the combination of the two. and as a bonus, here’s me in a luchador mask.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 12:22 pm. It is filed under Personal Work, Photos, PORTRAITS, self portrait and tagged with Baltimore, Baltimore Photographer, conceptual, graphic, lit, MATT ROTH, photo, photo series, Photos, portrait, PORTRAITS, self portrait. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.