For any aspiring self portrait photographers, I thought it would be useful to write up these helpful tips to help you get much better pictures. There are several important things to think about. The first thing that comes to mind is how how to take great shots of yourself if you don't have another person to help out.
Self portrait photos are becoming increasingly necessary in the modern world. Think about social media. Whatever platform you sign up for requires you to upload an avatar of some kind.
As you might have noticed with many of your friends' images, a lot of them are grainy and poor quality. A few of them are taken using a webcam, then there's the cheesy webcam Warhol effect, the self portrait in the bathroom mirror with the huge blur from the flash reflection, the images where your arm is outstretched to hold the camera, the list never ends!
So below are my top ten tips for getting the very best photos of yourself possible.
1. The simplest approach is to use the timer and set a delay of around 12 seconds so that you can get into position before the camera takes the shot. If you don't yet have a remote control to active the camera, this is a nice option. When you have a little cash to spend, I would highly recommend getting a remote control though. Later in this post I'll let you in on some much more effective techniques for this.
2. Go online and use Google Images to find a focus target that you can download and print out. It is super easy to do. You can then stick it to the wall behind you at head level, and use it to focus on. Another little tip here is to stick some coloured tape to mark the point where the bottom of the picture should be. It will probably be level with your chest for example.
3. One way that you could easily go wrong with this is to not know precisely where you were standing, which could cause you to stand slightly too close or too far away from the camera after you set the focus in the first place. The simplest solution to this is to mark another spot, this time on the floor, to know exactly where your feet will be. You don't have to do anything too fancy here - just a spot where the front of your feet will be for example. That should be fine.
4. You should be using manual focus for this. Manual focus will enable you to use your guides to work out the frame, then get the focus of your target worked out perfectly.
5. Work with an aperture of about F10, so that you have a little leeway in your depth of field, so that if you are off by a small amount, you won't lose focus.
6. One alternative way to check yourself before you shoot the picture rather than using the 10 second timer delay is to use fairly cheap TV and hook it up to the video out jack of your camera. You will now be able to see what you are doing in front of the camera. Most modern digital SLR cameras come with a video out. A lot of them also feature live view, so you can enable that and the TV will allow you to see if you are standing in the frame or not. After that you can use a remote control to take the shot.
7. By using pocket wizard transceivers, you can get shots immediately, which is useful if you are taking shots of yourself with your kids (and maybe even a pet dog). You simply plug in the pocket wizard to a pre-release cable, which is connected to the camera. When you turn on the switch on the free trigger able, it will cause the camera to act like its shutter button is pressed halfway down. Use continuous focus so that the camera will keep adjusting its focus while everyone moves around, and at that perfect moment, click it and you'll capture that perfect split second when everyone is doing what you want them to.
8. Alternatively, try and come up with an original place to take a self shot. You can come up with some pretty unusual places to take a photo of yourself that no one else will have thought of. This doesn't mean you have to venture out to the Grand Canyon to get a brilliant picture of yourself, and you probably don't even need to explore any further than around your house. One great example is to put your camera inside your kitchen fridge and take a shot of yourself from there with the fridge door open. You probably won't find any other friends who have a self shot like this on their Google Plus account! The secret formula for this is to let your creativity run wild with ideas for places to shoot!
9. Another option for you if you don't have the home studio equipment is to use a camera with a screen that can rotate and flip. This way you can see yourself on the small screen before you take the shot (I would still recommend using a small TV set if you have one).
10.) Get a GorillaPod. These will allow you to fix your tripod around a climbing frame, branch of a tree and lots of other objects. You'll be able to get shots that you wouldn't even dream of, by attaching your camera to unusual objects in this way.
I hope you found this useful and you can implement some of these techniques, which are not too expensive if you want to spend a little money on getting the best self shots.
Self portrait photos are becoming increasingly necessary in the modern world. Think about social media. Whatever platform you sign up for requires you to upload an avatar of some kind.
As you might have noticed with many of your friends' images, a lot of them are grainy and poor quality. A few of them are taken using a webcam, then there's the cheesy webcam Warhol effect, the self portrait in the bathroom mirror with the huge blur from the flash reflection, the images where your arm is outstretched to hold the camera, the list never ends!
So below are my top ten tips for getting the very best photos of yourself possible.
1. The simplest approach is to use the timer and set a delay of around 12 seconds so that you can get into position before the camera takes the shot. If you don't yet have a remote control to active the camera, this is a nice option. When you have a little cash to spend, I would highly recommend getting a remote control though. Later in this post I'll let you in on some much more effective techniques for this.
2. Go online and use Google Images to find a focus target that you can download and print out. It is super easy to do. You can then stick it to the wall behind you at head level, and use it to focus on. Another little tip here is to stick some coloured tape to mark the point where the bottom of the picture should be. It will probably be level with your chest for example.
3. One way that you could easily go wrong with this is to not know precisely where you were standing, which could cause you to stand slightly too close or too far away from the camera after you set the focus in the first place. The simplest solution to this is to mark another spot, this time on the floor, to know exactly where your feet will be. You don't have to do anything too fancy here - just a spot where the front of your feet will be for example. That should be fine.
4. You should be using manual focus for this. Manual focus will enable you to use your guides to work out the frame, then get the focus of your target worked out perfectly.
5. Work with an aperture of about F10, so that you have a little leeway in your depth of field, so that if you are off by a small amount, you won't lose focus.
6. One alternative way to check yourself before you shoot the picture rather than using the 10 second timer delay is to use fairly cheap TV and hook it up to the video out jack of your camera. You will now be able to see what you are doing in front of the camera. Most modern digital SLR cameras come with a video out. A lot of them also feature live view, so you can enable that and the TV will allow you to see if you are standing in the frame or not. After that you can use a remote control to take the shot.
7. By using pocket wizard transceivers, you can get shots immediately, which is useful if you are taking shots of yourself with your kids (and maybe even a pet dog). You simply plug in the pocket wizard to a pre-release cable, which is connected to the camera. When you turn on the switch on the free trigger able, it will cause the camera to act like its shutter button is pressed halfway down. Use continuous focus so that the camera will keep adjusting its focus while everyone moves around, and at that perfect moment, click it and you'll capture that perfect split second when everyone is doing what you want them to.
8. Alternatively, try and come up with an original place to take a self shot. You can come up with some pretty unusual places to take a photo of yourself that no one else will have thought of. This doesn't mean you have to venture out to the Grand Canyon to get a brilliant picture of yourself, and you probably don't even need to explore any further than around your house. One great example is to put your camera inside your kitchen fridge and take a shot of yourself from there with the fridge door open. You probably won't find any other friends who have a self shot like this on their Google Plus account! The secret formula for this is to let your creativity run wild with ideas for places to shoot!
9. Another option for you if you don't have the home studio equipment is to use a camera with a screen that can rotate and flip. This way you can see yourself on the small screen before you take the shot (I would still recommend using a small TV set if you have one).
10.) Get a GorillaPod. These will allow you to fix your tripod around a climbing frame, branch of a tree and lots of other objects. You'll be able to get shots that you wouldn't even dream of, by attaching your camera to unusual objects in this way.
I hope you found this useful and you can implement some of these techniques, which are not too expensive if you want to spend a little money on getting the best self shots.
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