top ten tips taking self portraits

• Posted by Brandi Snap April 8, 2011 #photos  #self portraits  4,625 views
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  As an avid photographer, personal and professional I use a Nikon DSLR with a speedlight, brolly set ups, reflectors etc to get the best results I can. Not everyone can justify spending £1000’s of pounds on photographic equipment so here are my top ten tips to taking better self portraits with a basic digital compact camera.

  You can get some great results from a small compact if you can check out a few settings.

  1.       Look at your surroundings; you don’t want a crate of carling in the background, or a bottle of engine oil spoiling your shot. Sounds daft, but I’m sure you have seen this happen! Make sure your surroundings are apt to the type of photo you want to take.

  2.       Use a tripod if you don’t have someone else to take them, you can get small cheap tripods from ebay from around a tenner. So much easier than balancing the dam thing off a shelf and you can get the exact angle you want.

  3.       Shoot from above, never shoot up – it’s unflattering! If you’re looking at the camera direct or looking up it takes out any extra chins!

  4.       If you have a large mirror place it behind the camera so you can see yourself, it’s much easier visually and you will get your shot much quicker.

  5.       Use a well lit room, turn the flash OFF, flash creates unnatural light and shadows – it’s not always possible but here is a few tips that may help.
  
  

  a.       Go through your camera menus and find the ISO setting, if your pictures are too dark bump up the ISO to 400 or above – experiment with setting to see what the best result is.

  b.      Again go through the menus and find the ‘white balance’ setting if your camera has one. Try different settings, even the ones that don’t seem apt they can really make a difference. I often use a ‘cloudy’ white balance in nightclubs; sounds strange but it really make a difference.

  c.       You may also have a scenes option; these are the automatic built in camera settings for different situations – worth trying!

  6.       Be relaxed and take time, and really think of what you want out of your shoot, search Google images and find shoots, poses you like and copy them. Nothing more down heartening than pointing the camera at you self and thinking “my passport photo is better”!

  7.       When you have finished your shots load them onto your computer and take a peak. Sometimes the shots you think may not be any good when looking at the tiny screen on the back of your camera, in fact could be the best ones.

  
  If you have photoshop or similar (if you have not got anything like this then have a look at http://pixlr.com/editor/ a free photoshop style editor on the web) open up each image and see if you can improve it. Play with settings, contrast, sharpen etc even try out the filters.

   

  8.       Get a flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/) to upload your pics to keep them safe. You can make them private so no one can see them till you are ready to show the world. If you buy a pro account with picnic (another image editor) you can again experiment with your image, boosting colours, adding borders etc.

  9.       Try not to display to many versions of the same type of photo (I’m totally guilty of this!) it can get a bit boring to the onlooker!

  10.   Use natural light, its the best. Hard I know when shooting indoors but use the light of a window or at best get outdoors! Move around so the light is in different directions the more you take the better results you will get. It’s not like the old ‘film’ days when it cost a fortune in reels of film, processing and a week’s wait to see the results only to find stickers stuck on your treasured pictures saying ‘underexposed’!

  Here are a few samples most taken with a compact camera, all taken in to photoshop for editing:

  http://www.transtastic.com/se4/albums/view/402