Many photographers say they have difficulty photographing people, but one of your most difficult subjects to capture could be you yourself! We all have a vision of ourselves that we create, but when we are forced to face ourselves, we shy away. But the self portrait can also reveal something about ourselves, or allow us to express ourselves, and have some fun.
Photographing your reflection in a mirror or something reflective is a simple example of a self portrait, like the picture above of myself reflected in a glass garden ball. The only problem is that you usually get the camera in the picture.
You can also set the camera on a tripod to photograph yourself in a location. Set up the scene how you want(you sitting at your desk, in your favourite chair, whatever) Get a proper exposure, compose the scene, and focus where you will be. Hit the shutter to begin the timer, then run like heck to get back in place(or use your remote to trigger the shutter!)
Or you could set everything up and have someone else take the picture. You can put a mirror in behind the camera to help pose yourself as well.
You can also photograph your shadow, or parts of your body. You can make goofy faces, or dress up as someone else.
Almost as easy is to hold your camera out as far as possible and turn the lens back on you. The drawbacks to this method are the facial distortion caused as you will have to use your wide angle to get a lot of yourself in the frame. Unless you have really long arms of course…
I’d you to try to more serious self portraits(showing you as you are) then maybe try some fun shots! Get yourself distorted in a spoon. Shoot yourself up close. Try the wide angle arms outstretched method. Set up a funny scene, get dressed up, anything. Well, keep it clean of course!
You can see some interesting examples taken by some of my own students here:
http://www.noelchenier.ca/GALLERY/self
If you’d like to share some, post a comment with a link to your pix!
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