How to Take Amazing Rainy Day Self-Portraits

Photography Tips  •  Portrait Photography

Ilko Alexandroff is a surreal fashion and travel photographer, born in Bulgaria but now living in Japan. His experiments with light—silhouettes, bokeh, patterns—have led him to step out in the rain every so often for a few creative self portraits. It takes a lot of prep to keep all his gear dry, but the results are pretty darn cool:

He covers his external flash (a Nissin MG8000) with a plastic bag, and rigs up an umbrella over his Canon SLR and one of two portrait lenses he switches between: a 135mm f/2 or 85mm fixed-zoom lens.

The results are pretty cool, made possible only by the light reflecting off each droplet of rain. He places the external flash behind himself to create a nice halo outline, and also illuminate the drops into sparkles of white light.

You need to have a pretty high tolerance for the rain to take these sorts of shots, as he writes in the video:

“I usually shoot these photos in front of my home, when it suddenly starts raining and I am in the mood for getting wet!”