Helpful Hints on the Self Portrait

The Self Portrait 

Recently some inquiry has been made as to what it takes to make an effective self portrait. So I have thought it right to post a few hopefully helpful hints on how to achieve a more artistic touch.

                                           

If you want to take pictures a little outside the frame than you may want to start practicing with a self portrait. No one can prove a more patient model for learning than ones self. Keep in mind that a good lens length for any portraiture would be between 80-100 mm unless you are angling for an extreme close up. You will obviously need a tripod, most especially if you are shooting indoors and in low light. Your camera should be equipped with a timed shutter release function what releases automatically or, by my personal favorite, a hand held cable shutter release that you depress manually for head shots. The rest is left to ingenuity and personal preference. Here are a few suggestions:

• Lighting- For an artistic touch I often shoot in low light, or dark room, so that the lights I do use have a more dramatic effect.
• Lamps- I do not always use professional head lamps as their light is very crisp bright and commanding. Playing around with different everyday lamps and lights that you have lying about the house can yield surprising results as to the sort of shadow and light tone you can create. This is most effective in black and white photography.
• Positioning- the use of doll, dummy. or stand of a proportionate size to yourself can be very useful. I myself love to take portraits manually as I find I can control the depth of field, or distance of focused objects, more readily and to my specific desire. While taking a picture manually does not have to be difficult it will require the use of a dummy to focus on. I have been known to use a particularly large stuffed teddy bare before!
• Inspiration- My suggestion is to try it all. Let your innermost character, you know the one you wouldn't dare show if someone else was in the room, come out and define the emotion of the photograph. Perhaps the best bit of self portraiture is that you may shoot without inhibition and camera shyness should just melt away. Do whatever poses you can think of and be as creative as you like. Sometimes what feels the silliest comes out looking most impressive.
  
• Props- My preferences tend to lean toward minimalism where it comes to props, but sometimes the use of favorite objects can enhance a photo. In the picture above I used a shawl made of a shinny gold fabric with intricate black lace work in between. The effect may seem understated in a black and white photograph but it really did add much needed depth and contrast to the canvas area. My suggestion to achieve this effect is to choose fabrics or objects that have a high level of contrast, light/dark, white/black, shinny/dull...etc.
  

Most important is to experiment and enjoy yourself. Most cameras being digital now days, you can just hit the all to familiar trash button and no one will ever be the wiser. If you are working with a 35mm medium than it is best to be more cautious; the rising cost of professional grade film gives a particular stop to shutter-happiness in film photography.