Self Portraits

I'm really trying to push myself here. I don't like taking pictures of myself so this was a challenge, but necessary to have more control over lighting and posing as compared to using my 3 yr old.

I had a hairlight with a small light modifier but unfortunately wasn't able to maneuver it to the right spot. Hopefully I can get a boom soon.

Slightly different editing styles on these.

I prefer the first image over the second, so will only offer my opinions on it.

If you were going for loop lighting on the first image, your light should have been set higher. You have the loop shadow caused by your nose, but it should be below the side of the nose, not even with it. As you noted, it would have helped if you could have positioned the hair light more accurately to give you some separation from the background. IMHO, the image would look better cropped just below the violin. Your knee on the bench doesn't add anything to the image. Also, you might try placing the violin in a higher position so the strings could act as leading lines to draw more attention to your face.

Both are very nice images, I prefer #2.

In the first image, while I like the pose, I think it needs some adjusting/refinement..​. I think the strait arm camera left needs to be bent slightly, and away from the body so you see a bit of waist. Also leaning forward at the belt buckle with a strait back just a smidge will help the jawline.

As noted, the light is too low for a standing postion, and if you could shape the lighting on how it falls down the rest of the body, so it was not as bright, I think it would work better... covering the bottom part of the window or soft box, what ever it was.

The second image I would play with some dodging/burning so the face is the brightest part of the skin showing, and not the hand with the bow.

Hair light camera right and behind would be a significant improvement, and really pop the image. I'd re-visit this and try some more.

And I'd play with adding a tint of color to the jeans to make them brown tone to match the rest of the tone/colors, which is really nice.