Studio Portraits
Picture #4
The lighting in this shot is coming from the side and above the model. This creates light on half his face and half of his shoulders, a shadow is cast on the rest of his body because of the folds in his clothing. The model is placed, standing in front of the camera with his chest up and arms back and down. The model has his head tilted back and is looking towards the ceiling. The camera was held horizontal and was positioned below the level of the subject, slightly off to the side and about 4 feet away. The light and shadows shown on the model creates a serious tone, almost as if the subject is struggling between the forces of good and evil. Just as in picture #6 the tone is serious and almost urgent. In #4 the person is struggling emotionally and in #6 the subject is in a physical struggle, both of these tones are created by the contrast of a little light casting a big shadow.
Self-Portrait
For the 2nd photo I used a long shutter speed rather than self-timer. The location is shot in my basement for all three. For the third picture, I correctly used the rule of thirds, but the others were quite centered. Seeing as though I used a very long shutter speed, I had to turn the ISO down to about 400 and even 200 for the last picture. There was a large depth of field with all, with little blur. I decided to photograph myself with transparency and other weird techniques. I feel as though the fade of my upper half and how my lower half stayed nontransparent made for a perfect picture. These pictures were not taken in my hand and used techniques impossible for a phone, so no it wasn't a selfie I feel.