Self Portrait Photography

It is most often difficult to get the perfectly focused photograph, unless you are an expert in it. However, with the help of a few photography tips and methods, you can manage to get a perfect photograph to the best of your abilities.

• Avoid the problem: Using a wide aperture while trying to auto-focus on your face can actually get your face out of focus. A better idea is to use a smaller aperture as this would provide a wider depth of field and accurate focusing will become less critical.

• Hit your mark: One of the best methods at the time of photographing self portraits is to place an object like a lamp or some stuffed animal, where you would be posing. Focus on that and then poses where you stand-in is at.

• Reverse focusing: This is similar to the previous method with the exception that you use your tripod itself as the stand-in. Since focusing concerns only with distances, take the camera to where you’ll be posing, focus on the tripod head, mark the spot and pose for your portrait. Then just put the camera in manual focus mode and put it back on the tripod.

• The string method: For those who wish to get super -precise focus with a narrow depth of field, tie a string to the tripod head and focus as above. Pull the string and mark it where it crosses the film plane. Put the camera back on the tripod, find your mark on the string and click the photo. The biggest advantage of this method is that it lets you shoot in any direction as long as you are in focused distance.

• Use a flashlight: Since most modern cameras have a ‘close-subject’ focus mode, you can use this to auto-focus your self portrait on exactly what you want. Using auto-focus, darken the room and shine a light on whatever you want to focus. Since the room will be dark you will need to use a flash.

• Measure: If your camera lens has distance marking, measure the distance from the camera to where you’ll be standing and use the distance markings on the lens to manually set the focus.

Some other self-portrait tips include:

• Put a mirror behind the camera in order to see the display, without having to get up between shots
• Use a cable release or remote
• Be extremely awesome