Self-portraits

Learning goal

When you have to be both behind and in front of the camera, you will be able to shoot your own portrait with a planned, repeatable method. You will fix the camera in place, set up the framing and focus on an object you put in your own place, and trigger the shutter from where you sit with the self-timer, a remote or interval shooting. You will turn shooting a few frames, going back to the camera to check and changing settings into a loop. You will understand the difference between the reversed face that a phone's front camera and a mirror show you and the face other people see. You will show your own skin not as a beauty mode or a filter lightens or smooths it, but in its own tone, which you confirm by looking in a mirror in the same light, and you will look at yourself with the same care you give others.

The question

The florist's owner's question stays on your friend's mind into the evening: they have photographed so many faces, so where is their own face? Your friend thinks of a few blurred selfies on the phone and of their face left half-cut at the edge of a few wedding frames. A portrait is needed for the back cover of their photobook and for the short introduction on their web page. But this time it is they who will sit in front of the lens; there is no one to set up the framing, adjust the focus, press the shutter and pose at the same time. How do I take a portrait of myself?

Context

In the remote shutter lesson you met the ways of shooting without touching the camera, the self-timer, a wired or wireless remote and frames the camera takes by itself at set intervals (Lesson 13.4). In the back-button focus lesson you worked on finding focus once and keeping it fixed (Lesson 10.6). And at the start of this track you saw that a portrait carries, beside likeness, character and the relationship between the photographer and the person (Lesson P.1).

In a self-portrait this relationship takes a strange form: the photographer and the person photographed are the same person. This is both an ease and a difficulty. There is no one to relax, no one to pose; but you need to pose without seeing the framing, sit without being able to check the focus, and be able to look at your own face with a stranger's eye. Since the earliest years of photography's history many photographers have photographed themselves; a self-portrait can be both a technical exercise and a work of getting to know yourself.

Simple explanation

How is the camera set up to photograph yourself?

A self-portrait is a photo in which the photographer takes a portrait of themselves. Unlike a selfie taken at arm's length, the camera is usually put in a fixed place and the photographer stands at a distance and in a light they choose. The camera is placed on a tripod, on top of a shelf or on a stack of books; the framing is set up to cover the place where the photographer will stand or sit.

A stand-in is an object put in the photographer's place in a self-portrait, by which the framing and focus are set up: a lamp placed on a chair, a box standing on a stool, a sheet of paper stuck to the wall. Focus is set on a point of this object standing at the height where the photographer's eyes will be, and then locked or switched to manual focus. When the photographer removes the object and takes its place, their face falls into the slice of sharpness. A small piece of tape stuck on the floor shows the exact place of the feet or the chair. The aperture is stopped down a little so the slice of sharpness isn't too thin; a shift of a few centimeters doesn't blur the face.

Who presses the shutter?

Once the camera is set up, the shutter is triggered from the photographer's place. The self-timer waits a few seconds and shoots; on many cameras it can be set to take several frames in a row. A remote works the shutter from a button that can be hidden in the palm or under a foot. Interval shooting lets the camera shoot by itself at set intervals; the photographer can move and pose without thinking about the remote.

A test loop is the sequence in a self-portrait of shooting a few frames, going back to the camera, checking the frames, changing the framing, focus, light or stance, and taking your place again. Most of the time of a self-portrait goes into this loop; in the first frames a shoulder gets cut, the focus slips to the ear, the light falls on the wrong side of the face. If the camera's screen can be flipped round, or a phone can be connected to the camera with an app, the photographer can see themselves from where they sit and the loop gets shorter.

The hardest part of a self-portrait is often the expression. No one directs your face, no one makes you laugh; and the self-timer's countdown freezes the face. Interval shooting helps here: while the camera shoots every few seconds, the photographer can think of someone they love, tell something out loud, or breathe slowly in and out. That way the face carries the trace not of a command but of a thought, and it becomes possible to choose, among many frames, the one that looks most like you.

How do you look at yourself?

A mirror image is the face shown by a mirror or a phone's front camera, with right and left swapped. Because many people see the reversed version of their own face in the mirror every day, they can find the face others see in a photo strange or foreign: the side their hair parts on, the tilt of their smile, a mole is in the wrong place. This strangeness isn't a flaw; the photo shows the face others see every day. Knowing this when judging a frame keeps you from being unfair to your own face.

Looking at yourself is harder than looking at someone else. In a self-portrait, the photographer must give their own face the care they give in other people's portraits. The beauty modes and filters often found in phones' front cameras can lighten the skin, erase texture or change the shape of the face; these are turned off. A simple way to confirm your own skin is to compare the frame, in the same light, next to a mirror, looking at your own hand and face. For dark skin the exposure is set for the face and it is checked that the frame doesn't come out too dark; for light skin, you check that the forehead and nose aren't shining.

Visual evidence

In the selfies on your friend's phone, their face was shot at arm's length; their nose is big, the front camera's beauty mode has lightened and smoothed their skin. The person in the frames looks familiar to them but a little foreign.

Your friend puts the camera on a tripod opposite the window where they started photography. They place a chair at a forty-five-degree angle to the window, put a lamp on it, set the focus on the lamp's top at eye level and lock it in manual focus. On the floor they stick tape where the chair's legs go. They remove the lamp, sit on the chair and shoot three frames with the remote.

They go back to the camera and look: one shoulder is cut, the focus is a little behind. They widen the framing, stop the aperture down a little, sit again. After a few loops, in the frame, in the window light, there is someone looking into the lens from their own level; the skin is the same tone as their hand in the mirror, the face is their own face.

Common mistakes

Summary

You shoot your own portrait by fixing the camera in place and setting up the framing and focus on a stand-in you put in your place, triggering the shutter from where you sit with the self-timer, a remote or interval shooting, and keeping the shoot, look, fix loop going. You know that the face in the photo differs from the reversed face in the mirror, turn off beauty modes, and show your own skin in its own tone by comparing it with a mirror in the same light.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will shoot your own portrait at home, in a corner that gets daylight.

1. Put your camera or phone in a fixed place, place a stand-in where you will sit, set the focus at its eye level and lock it; stick a piece of tape on the floor.
2. Remove the object and take its place, shoot a few frames with the self-timer, a remote or interval shooting, and do at least three test loops.
3. Turn off beauty modes, and compare your best frame with your own face and hand next to a mirror in the same light.

Check yourself

• Did the focus fall on your eyes?
• Could you recognize in the frame the face others see?
• Is your own skin in its own tone in the photo?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What is a stand-in used for in a self-portrait?

• A) Decorating the photo
• B) Setting up the framing and focus for where the photographer will stand
• C) Reflecting light
• D) Fixing the camera in place

2. After setting the focus on the stand-in, what is done?

• A) Autofocus is left on and you wait
• B) The object is left in place
• C) The focus is locked or switched to manual focus
• D) The aperture is opened to its widest

3. Why do many people find their own face in a photo strange?

• A) Because they see the reversed version of their own face in the mirror every day
• B) Because the camera enlarges the face
• C) Because photos are always pale
• D) Because the light isn't different from the mirror's

4. In a self-portrait, how do you check that your own skin is in the right tone?

• A) By turning on beauty mode
• B) By looking at the frame on another screen with the brightness turned all the way up
• C) By lightening the skin in editing
• D) By turning off beauty modes and comparing the frame with a mirror and your own hand in the same light

Answers

1. B — The object makes sure the face falls into the slice of sharpness when the photographer sits down.
2. C — Focus that isn't locked can slip to another point when the photographer takes their place.
3. A — The reversed face in the mirror is the familiar one; the photo shows what others see.
4. D — Comparing in the same light confirms the unfiltered, real tone.

Summary card

• Fix the camera; put a stand-in in your place, set the focus at eye level and lock it.
• Tape on the floor; stop the aperture down a little so a few centimeters of shift doesn't matter.
• Self-timer, remote or interval shooting; then the shoot, look, fix loop.
• The face in the mirror is reversed; the face in the photo is what others see.
• Beauty mode off; compare your skin with a mirror in the same light.

Bridge to the next lesson

The back-cover portrait is ready. A few days later, at the club's year-end meeting, the older member makes a request: a photo of all the members, twenty people, together. Your friend will both shoot and be in the frame. All twenty faces need to be sharp, all visible, and none of them caught blinking. Is a group photo possible without anyone closing their eyes? The next lesson takes up depth of field, burst shooting and clear direction.