If you enjoy doing self portrait photography, you might enjoy learning these helpful techniques to help you get some much nicer photos. There are a few important things to think about. For example, how can you capture high quality images without having someone with you to help out? Are there some ways you can easily frame yourself? Will the camera focus on the right part of the frame?
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.
Whenever you go online and look at photos of your friends on Facebook, Google Plus or some other social network, you constantly see poor quality shots that often look clichd and cheesy.
Check out my tips on how to get the nicest photos possible. You'll be running circles around all of your friends if you implement any three of them, I guarantee it.
1. Get familiar with the self-timer on your camera. This can be very useful if you haven't got a remote control to activate the camera (although the best option would be to get a remote control). Set your drive mode to around a 10 second delay, so you can get to the point where you need to be before the camera takes the photo. This is the simplest way to do it but I'll let you know a better approach later on in this article.
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 thing that people often forget to do is mark where they should stand on the floor. By forgetting to do this, their images might be slightly out of focus if they are standing at slightly different distances from the camera in each shot. You can mark on the floor the point where your toes will be, using some tape.
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. It is best to allow for slight variations in your depth of field. You can do this easily by using an aperture of around f/10, which will mean that your face ail still be in focus even if your distance from the camera is slightly off from when you set up the manual focus.
6. You may have used this technique before, but if not, it is a good one to know. I mentioned the timer delay earlier. By eliminating the need to use timer delay, you can use a remote control and a cheap TV set. Just wire up the TV set to your camera (most cameras allow for this these days), and then use the remote to take the shot after you've positioned yourself nicely in the frame and made sure that the image is in focus.
7. I can also tell you about an even better way than that to take self portrait shots, which involves the use of pocket wizards. You can hook up a pocket wizard transceiver to a pre-release cable, so that you can fix it to your camera and change your focus mode to continuous focus (called 'AI server mode' if you're using a Canon). The TV isn't required with this technique. On the free trigger cable, turn the switch on. This will be the equivalent of pushing the shutter release down half way. The camera will always be focusing if you are working with continuous focus. After this you can switch on a 2nd pocket wizard, and by doing this it is less important if you are standing exactly above the area you marked on the floor. You can step slightly forward or backward to mess around with different positions. This method can be a big advantage if you have some children or pet dogs for example and you aren't able to stand next to your camera. You can entertain the children and when they smile you can capture that image quickly and easily. You'll be able to get perfectly in focus images every time.
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. Get a camera which has a moveable screen such as the Canon PowerShot SX20IS or the G11, or a dual LCD screen like the Samsung PL100. This way you can see yourself while lining everything up.
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.
Many of the tips I've laid out for you in this article can be done at a reasonable price. I hope you found this useful and enjoyed learning my top ten tips on how to get better self portrait 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.
Whenever you go online and look at photos of your friends on Facebook, Google Plus or some other social network, you constantly see poor quality shots that often look clichd and cheesy.
Check out my tips on how to get the nicest photos possible. You'll be running circles around all of your friends if you implement any three of them, I guarantee it.
1. Get familiar with the self-timer on your camera. This can be very useful if you haven't got a remote control to activate the camera (although the best option would be to get a remote control). Set your drive mode to around a 10 second delay, so you can get to the point where you need to be before the camera takes the photo. This is the simplest way to do it but I'll let you know a better approach later on in this article.
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 thing that people often forget to do is mark where they should stand on the floor. By forgetting to do this, their images might be slightly out of focus if they are standing at slightly different distances from the camera in each shot. You can mark on the floor the point where your toes will be, using some tape.
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. It is best to allow for slight variations in your depth of field. You can do this easily by using an aperture of around f/10, which will mean that your face ail still be in focus even if your distance from the camera is slightly off from when you set up the manual focus.
6. You may have used this technique before, but if not, it is a good one to know. I mentioned the timer delay earlier. By eliminating the need to use timer delay, you can use a remote control and a cheap TV set. Just wire up the TV set to your camera (most cameras allow for this these days), and then use the remote to take the shot after you've positioned yourself nicely in the frame and made sure that the image is in focus.
7. I can also tell you about an even better way than that to take self portrait shots, which involves the use of pocket wizards. You can hook up a pocket wizard transceiver to a pre-release cable, so that you can fix it to your camera and change your focus mode to continuous focus (called 'AI server mode' if you're using a Canon). The TV isn't required with this technique. On the free trigger cable, turn the switch on. This will be the equivalent of pushing the shutter release down half way. The camera will always be focusing if you are working with continuous focus. After this you can switch on a 2nd pocket wizard, and by doing this it is less important if you are standing exactly above the area you marked on the floor. You can step slightly forward or backward to mess around with different positions. This method can be a big advantage if you have some children or pet dogs for example and you aren't able to stand next to your camera. You can entertain the children and when they smile you can capture that image quickly and easily. You'll be able to get perfectly in focus images every time.
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. Get a camera which has a moveable screen such as the Canon PowerShot SX20IS or the G11, or a dual LCD screen like the Samsung PL100. This way you can see yourself while lining everything up.
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.
Many of the tips I've laid out for you in this article can be done at a reasonable price. I hope you found this useful and enjoyed learning my top ten tips on how to get better self portrait shots.
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