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?
With the explosion of big data in recent years as the internet continues to grow, sharing media is now easier and more popular than ever. A huge part of that media being shared on the web is photography. Any social media network you join will need an avatar or photo of you for your profile.
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.
Just follow these quick and easy tips below and you'll be miles ahead of the curve.
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. Tape a focus target (that you downloaded from Google Images) to a wall or a reflector stand where you will be standing for the shot. As you will want to focus on your face, tape the focus target to the wall or stand at about head level. You could also stick a small piece of tape to the wall to mark the lowest point of the picture to help you line things up before you take the shot.
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 can get your frame worked out and your focus worked out nicely if you work with manual focus. Using auto focus won't work as well for this task.
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. What if you want to take photos of yourself with your children or a pet? They move around a lot and so the timer delay probably won't work well. Have you ever heard of a pocket wizard? They can be extremely useful tools. This approach is even better than the TV and remote technique. Wire up a pocket wizard transceiver with a pre-release cable, and then hook that up to your camera and set your focus mode to continuous focus. You won't need a TV set for this. Turn on the trigger cable switch (which is the same as pressing your shutter button half way), with the camera set to continuous focus. Once your kids are smiling or looking at the camera, you can quickly capture the shot.
8. If you don't have any of the equipment described above (those techniques will work best in a home studio), you can come up with some pretty unique places around your home and neighbourhood to get some great shots. I am not suggesting that you risk injury by climbing up a tree or anything like that, but try finding original places to put your camera for the shot (not in the bathtub). You could put it in the fridge and take a shot of you peering into the fridge to grab a snack. Just an example.
9. It's a good idea to choose a camera that has a moveable screen such as the Canon PowerShot SX20IS or the G11. Cameras with this kind of design will allow you to see yourself in the frame while you are setting up the composition.
10.) Get a GorillaPod or a tripod with bendy legs. This will enable you to fix your tripod around a climbing frame, branch of a tree and all kinds of places. It can go pretty much anywhere, which will allow you to get images that you wouldn't otherwise be able to take.
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.
With the explosion of big data in recent years as the internet continues to grow, sharing media is now easier and more popular than ever. A huge part of that media being shared on the web is photography. Any social media network you join will need an avatar or photo of you for your profile.
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.
Just follow these quick and easy tips below and you'll be miles ahead of the curve.
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. Tape a focus target (that you downloaded from Google Images) to a wall or a reflector stand where you will be standing for the shot. As you will want to focus on your face, tape the focus target to the wall or stand at about head level. You could also stick a small piece of tape to the wall to mark the lowest point of the picture to help you line things up before you take the shot.
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 can get your frame worked out and your focus worked out nicely if you work with manual focus. Using auto focus won't work as well for this task.
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. What if you want to take photos of yourself with your children or a pet? They move around a lot and so the timer delay probably won't work well. Have you ever heard of a pocket wizard? They can be extremely useful tools. This approach is even better than the TV and remote technique. Wire up a pocket wizard transceiver with a pre-release cable, and then hook that up to your camera and set your focus mode to continuous focus. You won't need a TV set for this. Turn on the trigger cable switch (which is the same as pressing your shutter button half way), with the camera set to continuous focus. Once your kids are smiling or looking at the camera, you can quickly capture the shot.
8. If you don't have any of the equipment described above (those techniques will work best in a home studio), you can come up with some pretty unique places around your home and neighbourhood to get some great shots. I am not suggesting that you risk injury by climbing up a tree or anything like that, but try finding original places to put your camera for the shot (not in the bathtub). You could put it in the fridge and take a shot of you peering into the fridge to grab a snack. Just an example.
9. It's a good idea to choose a camera that has a moveable screen such as the Canon PowerShot SX20IS or the G11. Cameras with this kind of design will allow you to see yourself in the frame while you are setting up the composition.
10.) Get a GorillaPod or a tripod with bendy legs. This will enable you to fix your tripod around a climbing frame, branch of a tree and all kinds of places. It can go pretty much anywhere, which will allow you to get images that you wouldn't otherwise be able to take.
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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