Department: Articles - Tags: candids & portraits, Features
I would have to say that the most fun I have with my camera is when I am doing self portraits. There is no one to offend. You know exactly how far you can push your subject (you). And you don’t mind experimenting on yourself. I also find that my most experimental works, especially in the portrait side of photography, is when I turn the camera on myself. In my portfolio, I have several self portraits, some of which you can see here. I have learned a lot from all of the self portraits I have taken. I would encourage any photographer to experiment with self-portraiture. Here are a few tips on getting started.
What Makes a Self Portrait?
Sounds like a simple question with a simple answer, doesn’t it? The answer would simply be “you” right? Well, yes. But you are able to bend the rules a little bit. You don’t have to show all of you, for example. I would even argue that your face isn’t even a required element. In some cases, it’s more interesting if your facial features aren’t fully discernible. Profile shots, shots where your face is in darkness (such as my example to the right) or even shots where you aren’t the main focus of the photograph may make for interesting photography. I have seen some self portraits by other artists include a crystal-clear shot of someone else’s eye and you can make out the photographer in the reflection. Or there is always a photographic interpretation of M.C. Escher’s famous reflective ball portraits where he drew himself looking into a ball that he was holding.
Tips for Shooting
Shooting self portraits can quickly become complicated. You have to think about how best to get on the other side of the lens. If you’re shooting into a mirror (a very popular technique, a bit overdone but fun to do), a flash will almost always cause some unnecessary inclusions or completely obscure your face if the camera is too close to you. Otherwise, you’ll almost always need a tripod. When setting up the tripod, think about angles. A self portrait is usually going to be more interesting if you can incorporate a unique perspective or a bizarre angle. You may want that tripod to be adjusted to achieve such an angle. A tried-and-true method for getting on the other side of the lens is to utilize the timer feature in your camera. Give yourself enough time to get into position and adjusted before the shutter opens. But don’t give too much time - you don’t want to induce impatience or frustration as you will likely want to take several shots to achieve your needs. If you have a remote trigger for your camera (you should get one if you don’t), string that along for ultimate control. I would even go so far as to say that you don’t always need to crop it out of the photograph. It’s just one more clue that it’s a self portrait, after all.
Playing with Light
I like to play around with the light when I do self portraits. Sometimes, like with Bright Sides (above ), I’ll set up in a dark room with the flash and I’ll try to redirect it with something (such as my hand or a CD case to direct the flash at the side of my face). For the ID at the top of the page, I actually set the camera a little behind and left of me and took the picture into the mirror. Most of the light hit the back of my shoulder. Only a small portion of it made it to the front of my face. Obscuring part of your face and the use of darkness in your photographs will yield some very dramatic effects.
Fun with Post-Processing
One of my favorite self portraits today is Indecisive (below). Without the use of Photoshop, this type of composite photography would not be possible. All together, this photograph was comprised of 7 separate photos. I changed outfits between each photograph, got in different positions and did not move the camera in any way. In Photoshop, I layered them all on top of each other, made any fine tweaks in position to make sure they perfectly lined up, and then used layer masks to place each copy of me over the background shot. I had to be careful to include shadows and reflections and, of course, the dents in the couch. The complete work took me a couple of hours from camera set up to finished product. But I had a lot of fun pulling it together. This type of thing is a great example of how much fun you can have with self portraits. It’s also a great example of how much experience and practice you can get out of a single photograph.
