Artistic Self Portraits Photography: My Complete Process from Concept to Final Edit

Artistic self portraits photography is definitely one of the more challenging types of photography because you have to do everything yourself:

You are the one coming up with the concept, doing the hair and make-up, sourcing the outfit, setting up the lighting, striking the pose and taking the photo.

When I first started taking painterly self-portraits, I struggled with the more technical aspects of the process, such as achieving the lighting I wanted or retouching the skin in Photoshop.

Over the years, I’ve managed to gather and develop more and more skills when it comes to artistic self portraits photography, but it’s not been the easiest journey; mainly because there simply aren’t that many resources out there for creating fine art self-portraits.

If you’re in the same boat, keep reading because in today’s blog post, I will share my most recent self-portrait shoot from start to finish, including editing, shooting and post-processing.

Hopefully, this will make creating your own artistic self-portraits a little bit easier (and the process a little less frustrating).

Let’s dive right in!

1. The Concept

Every photo shoot starts with an idea.

However, ironically, this one was born out of a lack of ideas.

More precisely, I was going through a creative block and feeling rather annoyed about it.

During that time, I walked past some street art depicting a swamp with toads in it, which got me thinking:

I felt like I was in a metaphorical swamp, devoid of ideas.

Through the weird associations my brain goes through, that reminded me of oyster divers in the murky ocean, trying to find pearls–a pretty arduous and time-consuming endeavour.

As I pondered this, I suddenly realised that THIS WAS THE IDEA!

The concept for my photo shoot should be someone searching for a pearl (a metaphor for a rare and precious good idea) in a sea of oyster shells.

This association came to me pretty spontaneously, but that’s not always the case.

If you need help with concept development, you can always use tools like mind maps, moodboards or writing prompts to get the ideas flowing.

You can also download my free ebook, which contains 50 self-portrait ideas:

Makeup and Styling

The next important part of every artistic self portraits photography shoot is hair, makeup and styling.

For this shoot, I found it pretty easy to come up with the look I wanted.

I decided to let the marine theme guide my stylistic decisions:

I would create a wet hair look as if I had just walked out of the sea.

Next, I would opt for a shiny, glossy complexion and shimmery eye shadow in pearlescent tones to mimic the insides of oysters.

I would also wear a blue velvet dress, evoking the ocean. (I usually buy my photo shoot outfits in thrift stores or on Vinted for a couple of dollars.)

Props

For props, I first had to source some empty oyster shells, which I found on Etsy.

Next, I finally had an occasion to use that old, rusty lantern I had bought years ago on eBay and never used. I liked how this would symbolise the aspect of searching for something.

Here’s an image of me with my props:

Lighting

For most artistic self portraits photography shoots, lighting is one of the main make-or-break factors:

The right lighting can really transform your self-portrait and give it that painterly look.

For my shoot, I decided to go for a Rembrandt-style moody lighting setup (more details in the next section); I would also emphasise the candlelight shine of the lantern in post-processing.

2. The Photo Shoot

The photo shoot is always the part that makes me the most nervous! 

That’s because many things can go wrong, and I never know if I’ll be able to bring my creative vision to life.

(Spoiler alert–sometimes, I don’t, and there are a lot of unused images on my hard drive!).

Let me now share all the details of the Seeking Pearls photo shoot!

The Location

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that I shoot all my self-portraits in my small living room because I don’t have access to a studio.

For this shoot, I used a simple paper backdrop by Calumet in a duck egg blue colour.

I like using backdrops because they give images the appearance of being shot in a professional photo studio.

They’re also a great choice for fine art portraits because they keep the focus on the subject.

Lighting

Next, I knew I wanted to create that moody Rembrandt-style lighting.

I used a single studio flash for this photo (mine is by Neewer, which is sadly discontinued, but I do recommend that brand if you want to get one).

To achieve that painterly lighting effect, I also used a so-called honeycomb grid to modify the light.

This is a simple attachment for studio lighting that reduces light spill to the sides, making the light appear more three-dimensional; it looks like this:

By the way, you don’t need to use a flash for this; you could easily recreate this with a continuous light source, e.g. an LED video light.

(If you want to learn more about studio/artificial lighting, check out my in-depth blog post here).

Finally, I also used a silver reflector to brighten up shadows on the other side of my face and body:

By the way, if you’re using artificial lighting, I always recommend shooting your image slightly underexposed (in RAW file format).

This is because it’s always possible to increase the exposure in Photoshop and bring back details in the shadow areas.

Conversely, it’s very difficult (and sometimes impossible) to recover information from overexposed areas.

Camera Settings

For this shoot, I used my beloved Sony Alpha 7IV with a 50mm prime lens.

I like using 50mm lenses for my self-portraits because I can use a wide aperture to achieve a slight background blur.

In addition, they don’t significantly distort the image, giving an effect very similar to how the human eye sees.

I used the manual mode of my camera with the following settings:

• ISO 64
• Shutter speed 1/200 sec
• F/stop 5.6

By the way: If you want to learn how to use your camera’s manual mode, check out my posts on ISO/shutter speed and aperture!

Taking the Photo

The biggest challenge of this particular shoot was getting the pose right.

I had imagined myself holding a few oyster shells in one hand and holding the lantern with the other, but I quickly realised that this position looked a bit unnatural.

I also had a lot of tension in my mouth, which ruined probably about 50 shots!

With all my shoots, it takes me around 20 frames to find the right pose, but with this shoot, it was particularly challenging.

I think I took about 120 images overall, which is quite a lot.

But if you’ve tried taking self-portraits before, you probably know how challenging it can be!

Me during my shoot.

Additionally, for this shoot, I had a few variables to get right:

I needed to integrate both hands into an aesthetically pleasing composition, and I wanted just a few strands of my hair in the face, which I had to carefully arrange for every shot.

In addition, I also needed to hold the lantern somewhat straight (and keep that mouth relaxed!).

Eventually, I got a shot I was somewhat happy with.

Overall, this was one of the more challenging shoots for me, and I was pretty exhausted at the end!

3. Editing in Photoshop

In the next step, it was time for editing my image in Photoshop.

For most of my photos including this one, my editing process includes the following steps:

• cleaning up distracting details like stray hairs, dust particles etc
• fixing the backdrop, if necessary
• correcting shapes using the Liquify filter
• retouching the skin
• colour grading the image
• adding additional highlights and depth for more dimension, particularly on the skin
• adjusting the overall exposure, lighting and brightness
• adding grain and final edits

I won’t go into all of these steps in this blog post, but I’ll talk about the main ones and which tools I use for each purpose.

By the way: If you want to see me in action editing this photo, check out my YouTube video below:

But now, back to the post!

Skin Retouching

Skin retouching used to be one of those “last frontiers” for me when it came to Photoshop.

Achieving highly polished, immaculate skin without losing texture seemed incredibly complicated and advanced.

I remember watching numerous retouching tutorials and even completing a few online courses, and even though I got better at skin retouching, it was always something that filled me with dread.

Luckily, over the last year or so, there has been an influx of handy AI-powered skin retouching tools that work incredibly well.

I’ve used quite a few different ones in the last months to try them out.

For this photo, I used a tool called Reblum, which you download onto your computer and then use like a filter in Photoshop (or Lightroom).

I think it did an excellent job with this picture, so I didn’t need to manually retouch my skin at all.

Tip: Generally, it always pays off to use soft, flattering lighting so you reduce the need for retouching.

This could be in the shape of a softbox, a beauty dish, or even some white nylon fabric you place in front of your light (like a shower curtain).

Colour Grading

Without doubt, learning colour grading has been the most crucial factor in improving my photography and giving it that pro look.

If you’re not familiar with the term, it simply means manipulating the colours to get a specific effect or convey a particular emotion in your images.

I’ve actually written a whole post on colour grading here, so definitely check that out if you want to learn more.

For my Seeking Pearls photo, I did quite a lot of colour grading using different tools.

Primarily, I wanted to create a nighttime effect (i.e., increasing blue tones) and evoke the sensation of a soft, warm glow (by enhancing yellows and reds around the lantern).

I also colour graded my skin tone by decreasing the reds and yellows, making it appear more white and porcelain-like, and I added an overall green tint to achieve that “underwater look”.

Here are my favourite Photoshop tools for colour grading; you can access all of them via the adjustment layer menu here:

Click on thic circle icon to access the adjustment layer menu.

Selective Color

This tool is great for adjusting individual hues, such as adjusting only reds or blues.

I often use it for colour correcting skin or individual objects. If you only want certain areas in the image affected, mask the rest out with a soft brush on black.

Hue/Saturation

This tool is great if you want to change the colour of something to a different colour, or simply to increase/decrease the saturation and brightness of individual colours.

In my photo, I used it to make the red and yellow tones of the lantern more coppery red and saturated.

Color Lookup

My favourite colour grading tool! It contains lots of different presets that will immediately change the look and feel of your image. 

Try the Candlelight Cube, Night from Day or different Kodak/Fujifilm templates!

I usually layer/combine a few of these presets for an individual, artistic look.

Again, you can see me use these tools in action in my video here.

Shadows and Highlights

In a final editing step, I also added some shadows and highlights to my self-portrait.

This is a completely optional step, and it won’t work for any type of photography; for example, you wouldn’t do it for a high-key portrait where the lighting is already very bright overall.

However, it works perfectly for artistic self portraits photography, where you want to create more dimension, recreating that candle-light look.

Technically, this process is referred to as dodging and burning.

If you have grown up with film photography, you’ll be familiar with the term, as this technique was initially used when developing photos in a darkroom.

In Photoshop, you can easily recreate it digitally. Photoshop actually has dedicated tools for this called Dodge and Burn.

However, they are not my favourite choice as they can sometimes lead to discolourations.

I prefer adding shadows and highlights using the Curves tool:

I simply add one Curves layer and pull the middle of the curve up to make the image brighter overall. I then create a second Curves layer, pulling the middle of the curve down to create a darker exposure overall.

Then, I invert the adjustment layer masks by hitting Command + I (or Control + I on a PC) and paint in highlights and shadows with a soft brush tool.

Watch me do it in my YouTube video here, where I also show an alternative method using the Brush tool.

Final Edits

There are always some final edits I do to pull everything together. 

Typically, this involves adding a bit of grain and sharpening the image.

For this self-portrait, I applied both of the above techniques, and I added a slight vignette effect to make the candlelight shine even more pronounced.

And that’s it!

Leave any questions about this self-portrait shoot or editing in the comments!

And finally, if you want to dive deeper into artistic self portraits photography, make sure to check out my ebook below: