Monday, September 6, 2010

Let's Talk Self Portraits

There seems to be a lot of talk in blog land lately about self portraits.  Here's an interesting sample:
Digital Photograph School has a fantastic sampling of mirror self portraits at this link. Absolutely love the idea of taking a mirror outside to do a self-portrait.
The Beauty of Different blog selects postings from a flicker group that include a self portrait as well as a proclamation of what the photographer's beautiful different is.  You can read more about it here.  Love the idea, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough to go there just yet.
Mel posted a self portrait here, and Tammy Lee put hers in this post.
All of this inspired me to try some self-portraits:
Took all of them using the reflection in my ipad.  Cool, huh?  I definitely learned some lessons from this session, which will show up later in my "Learn Something New" album.  I especially learned from this photo:
In the meantime, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on self-portraits.  Love them? Hate them? Done many? Any good tips to share? 
at

10 comments:

  1. evalynSeptember 6, 2010 at 10:47 PM

    I am not a fan of having my photo taken. That said, I need to be some of my own photos--I would just prefer to take them myself. Just started a class on self-portraits. Best tips: find great lighting, take lots of photos, photoshop yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AmySeptember 6, 2010 at 11:05 PM

    They are hard ... especially mirror ones! I've been using the point and shoot to get some family ones lately and it has been working well - a swivel viewing screen helps though!

    ReplyDelete
  3. helenaSeptember 7, 2010 at 12:34 AM

    i love shadow self-portraits. For self-portraits that show more detail I rely on the timer on my camera and using my gorrilapod.

    Best tip is one I picked up from Cathy Z - set the timer and then laugh or talk or do something so that the shot does not look posed. I particularly like ones when I set it up and then walk away from or towards the camera.

    ReplyDelete
  4. SianSeptember 7, 2010 at 1:19 AM

    I have taken one or two mirror portraits and I was surprised at how hard it was to place the camera - I thought it was going to be easy and it wasn't. I was pleased with what I did though -it's the pic of me on my blog.

    Good topic for a discussion :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. humelSeptember 7, 2010 at 3:50 AM

    You know how I feel about self-portraits lol!! Angst.... I'm having my hair cut today so I need to take another and I'm fretting slightly already!!

    Yours are lovely though, and I look forward to hearing what you've learnt xx

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousSeptember 7, 2010 at 4:20 AM

    Not a fan, but I used to participate in a daily photo blog where once a week a self-portrait was one the agenda. There were very few I liked, but one of them is my avatar. The best ones always had the camera in the photo.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousSeptember 7, 2010 at 4:56 AM

    I'm not a fan either - how come the camera never 'sees' you as you see yourself?!! Those that have taken the plunge are braver than me....I salute you! :D

    ReplyDelete
  8. ComfyMom~StaceySeptember 7, 2010 at 11:17 AM

    I'm getting used to the idea because my 365 project this year involves one self portrait a month & I am trying to make each one a different look or angle.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Deb @ PaperTurtleSeptember 7, 2010 at 11:41 AM

    I love your SP's Rinda! :o) I haven't done too many of them, though my daughter has never had a problem! We have SO many SP's of Carrie on our computer and I love when they pop up. Guess I should step up the game and do a few myself...

    ReplyDelete
  10. CapescrapperSeptember 7, 2010 at 4:54 PM

    My favorite self portrait was one I took in the reflection of my shed's window.

    Great job with using the iPad as the reflecting tool!

    ReplyDelete