BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

How to do self portraits

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May 07, 2002

I placed my camera on a sturdy tripod and attaching the flash with an Off-Camera Shoe Cord 2, which I bought for my Canon Elan and 20D. I set my white balace to auto, which was a mistake. I need to go back and try the custom function as everything turned jade green from reflection of the bathroom tile and my tee shirt onto my face and hair.

I then, bounced the light off the ceiling to fill the shadows. But, in my case, I lost my directional lighting, so I'll need to reshoot.

The difficult part, thus far, was focusing on myself in the mirror. I found that manual focus works better than automatic. Also, trying to obtain the correct meter reading was especially hard for me, because when I was metering, I was behind the camera, and when I was taking the image, I was beside the camera.

It's going to need some practice.

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October 01, 2006

Aim the camera at where you're sitting, make sure to leave enough slack in the frame so you can move around a bit. Have someone sit where you're going to end up OR just put something where you'll be sitting in order to focus on it. Use a smaller f-stop, in the range of f8 through f16 to get reasonable depth of field.

Set your self timer at 10 seconds, hit the shutter release, race around to the front of the camera being careful not to tumble on your tripod legs, have a seat and strike a pose such as that handsome looking devil to the left in the brown sombrero. 0\:>).

That's it. No smoke, no mirrors, simple outdoor lighting and there you have it.
Anything else?
Take it light. ;>)
Mark

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October 01, 2006

I guess I could set my flash on a light stand facing about 45 or so degrees from where I'll be sitting.

But, I wonder how I'm going to run into place, when I can barely walk (due to injury).

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October 01, 2006

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October 01, 2006

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October 01, 2006

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October 01, 2006

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October 01, 2006

I like Rembrandt lighting. That is, taking images using window light from the sky, but in open shade. This soft portrait lighting allows details in both the highlights and shadows.

I manually focused, but metered automatically setting one of the metering points to land on my skin. And set the AE lock [*]. I, then, covered the Viewfinder Eyepiece of my Canon 20D with the rectangular piece on my strap to prevent extraneous light from entering when I moved my face away from the camera. And, because my camera was firmly placed on a sturdy tripod, I squeezed the shutter. This was the result.

Oh, I changed this in PS 7 from color to black and white. No other changes were made.

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October 01, 2006

Two things you can try til you're a bit more mobile: Get an air-type shutter release from B&Hphotovideo.com. They're fairly long and that will allow you to be a several feet from your camera. Same deal, prefocus on something in the scene, like something resting on the table I mentioned, where you can sit.

These air-releases have a large bulb you squeeze to trip the shutter and don't seem to produce camera shake. They're not too expensive. Ask them if it'll work on your camera before you buy one though. ( I use them on view cameras with different types of shutters and release mechanisms.)

You don't really need a flash for this. Rembrandt lighting is fine using available light from any natural light source.

The table is for posing and holding a mug of coffee (or depending on the time of day and what kind of day it's been, a shot of single malt scotch.) Okie dokie. ;>)
Mark

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October 02, 2006

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October 02, 2006