Self Portrait Photography
The concept of a self portrait, in a photographic sense, sounds a bit moronic. I recently attempted to take a photograph of my mother and I, with me no one behind the camera - except for me, “in spirit”. The results were quite surprising…
It is a bit of a challenge, when you’re used to being able to make last minute adjustments before taking a photo, to rely on your settings and just let them ride out.
Having at least another person in the photo helps though; that way you can set the focus properly, and adjust the settings to match the available light.
The right environment (i.e. background) is important. In this photo below it’s actually one of my walls at home!
Then comes the concept of hair, makeup, outfit… Needless to say, we both went through a few “costume changes” to reach the combination below. I’m still not entirely happy with the ‘black on black’ look, but it still works.
The mandatory piece of equipment (apart from the camera itself) is of course, the tripod. It can’t happen without that.
So, after experimenting to see if it could work, I’m happy to say that it is possible to take a decent self portrait photograph. It takes some manoeuvring though!