Mobile light June 5, 2008
Mobile phone as light source
I wanted to do a “real” self portrait because I anyway do many (photographic!) experiment with myself, but those images will (hopefully? definitely?) never be seen by anyone else. Since I like playing with light I thought I might as well show that in my self portrait. My Nokia 1100 Mobile phone has a build in flashlight (which is very handy, btw). While testing long exposures with it I noticed the light is actually pulsating. Instead of long light trails I could now have DOTTED light trails! How cool is that 
How was it done
The image was done with two 500Ws Bowens studio strobes. The first one had a 60×60cm softbox and was responsible for front lighting. The second one was used with standard reflector and was responsible for rim lighting. Both had output power reduced 3 stops. Behind me was a piece of black velvet.
Exposure time was 30 seconds (ISO 100, f/8). This gave me plenty of time to play with light trails. With front curtain flash the strobes will fire when the exposure starts. This made it easier to position my hand where I wanted it, but I still had to make about 15 exposures before I had the final frame.