Self Portrait, with Light Signature

I always wanted to take a self-portrait, with me waving a light stick to trace my signature over the picture. The last time I saw a picture like this, it was a Pablo Picasso. Lucky him--as a painter, he could trace his signature backwards. During the film era, this was too expensive for me to do. With digital, it became possible, cost-wise. But I could not do a backward signature. So I sorta had to cheat w/Photoshop. I'm documenting how I did this, so I can improve the next time.

Taking the Picture was easy. I just had to set up my flash so that I could pose as if I was at the end of my signature. At least I thought it was easy--you'll soon note I had some small mistakes, that I had to correct.



To take "the signature," I setup my Nikon D200 on a tripod in my darkened garage. It was set on a timer at 30 seconds, f6.3, manual focus. Don't try to set it on autofocus, as there's nothing to focus when you trip the shutter. At the point you trip the shutter, auto exposure and autofocus is set. So you may not get a focused picture.


Then the fun began. I traced my signature, time and time again. It just looked too scrunched up or too bright. I finally got the hang of the signature (backwards, of course) about the 15th or 16th shot. It was dark enough that not much other stuff showed, after I cleared up more space.

Then came the cheating part. I loaded "the signature" into Photoshop, then rotated the image horizonatally. Bravo! the images was now frontwards. But the background was black. So I selected the signature, with a narrow band. I didn't want to have "the signature" have too much flourescing. I transferred that to a new layer by CUT, and then inserted my picture above into the image. After placing "the signature" on top of the picture and blanking out the black background of the garage, I started to have the elements of the picture.

I had to go back and reduce the size of "the signature," as mine was too large. Notice something strange of the picture above--I'm posed to my right (where I originally drew "the signature") but it looks like my hand is at the beginning of "Wei." It is, because I forgot I rotated "the signature" horizontally! Of course I could have rotate my picture horizontally, also, but then everything would be backwards with me. There's a signature Naoki in the gyotaku, so that wouldn't have worked. I had to reposition the flash to my left, and also end my "stroke" to my left.


Next time I'll better sketch what I need to do, and plan it, step by step, rather than wing it. Luckily I had digital, so I could accomplish this in 90 minutes of trail and error.

Next Post: Self-Portrait, w/ Modifiers