05/24/2022
HOW TO TAKE A PICTURE OF YOURSELF
Because if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.
I get asked this a lot, so now I'm posting this step by step guide for anyone who needs to use it. I'll make a second post on how to pose for a portrait and add the link in an edit. Feel free to share as long as you give credit where credit is due.
1. USE A GOOD CAMERA
This could include a real camera, or at a minimum, the forward facing camera on your cell phone. Selfie / Facetime cameras on your phone have very not just low resolution, but also worse color fidelity etc, so you always look worse with those.
2. USE A MIRROR, COMPOSE YOUR POSE
A lot of cameras have "selfie screens" that fold out, and a lot of people use them, and a lot of people look oddly distracted and off center in their self portraits as a result. Use a mirror behind your camera instead. The larger the better. It will give you a better sense of your posture. Before you even get the camera out, it pays to use the mirror to dial in your pose, and then practice, going from resting to pose to resting to pose back and forth to develop some muscle memory of how to hold yourself for the picture.
3. USE A TRIPOD, DIAL IN YOUR ANGLE
Professional photos are better because we don't simply take one and walk away. We work through problems and dial things in until we get what we want. In the film days I did this with polaroid, but now you can just take a bunch of photos with your digital camera. This will pay off. Put your camera on a tripod or something sturdy and move it around taking test pictures until you find the angle you like best.
4. DIAL IN YOUR DEPTH OF FIELD, FOCUS, AND EXPOSURE
If you are using a cell phone this may not be necessary, but it always pays off to think more carefully about the exposure of your shot. If you are using a stand-alone camera, it is absolutely essential. Do not trust eye-detect auto focus. You are not a race horse. You can set the focus zone and simply stand in it. Also, don't take one of these ultra-shallow depth of field portraits where only one eyelash is in focus. Those are a tired cliché anyway, but more importantly, they make a self portrait very difficult to shoot. Instead, just "f8 and be there" You'll be surprised how good it looks when both your nose and your ear are in focus. Also remember, brighter pictures normally look better, and if you want to print, you need to shoot brighter than you would for a glowing screen.
5. USE A STICKER, DIAL IN YOUR EYE LINE
Where your eye is looking is very powerful in a portrait, and with self portraits it normally ends up with you looking awkwardly at the screen, or the button you are pushing, or who knows where else. Don't leave this to chance. Put a sticker or a piece of tape on the mirror where you want to focus your eyes. Try moving it around in different test photos until you find the one you like best, rather than just rolling the dice without a plan.
6. USE A 10 SECOND DELAY, RELAX YOUR FACE
Most people just click the button for a selfie. If you are trying to shoot with a camera, sometimes you might use the 3 second delay to give you time to get your hand out of the way. Both these approaches tend to produce tense photos. When you are taking test photos don't worry about that, just take them quickly. They're test photos. But when you have everything dialed in and are taking a potential keeper, use the longer ten second delay. This is because adopting the pose and triggering the camera always tends to make you tense up, and you will relax into a much more natural pose if you give yourself a little time to wait for the shutter to snap.
After that, the best way to get good at this is by practicing. A lot. This is also a great way to develop your skills for taking portraits of other people. Digital photos are free, and you will never work with a more cooperative model than yourself. Take all the pictures you want. Get crazy. Delete them all. Nobody will ever know, but your skills will grow.
