How to Take Self Portraits: 5 Tips from A Kamloops Portrait Photographer

Self PortraitsPhotography EducationPhotographers

Nov 11

Whether you’re a professional photographer or not — taking self portraits can be really hard! This list will give you 4 tips on how to make your next self portrait session a breeze, so you can take some rad photos of yourself like me.

To start, simply set up your tripod, attach your camera, and turn on the self-timer. If you don’t have a tripod, you could try using a piece of furniture or something else that’s sturdy and the correct height you need.

1 — take your time

Go out on a day that you know you’ll have lots of time to take your self portraits. Feeling rushed is not the vibe, so get out there and enjoy the time spent with yourself!

2 — take a lot of photos (and be prepared to sift through them all!)

Turn your self-timer on to capture multiple shots with each press of the shutter button. For me, I set it to 6 frames and on any given self portrait session I come home with between 200-300 photos only to get 10-20 images I really like. Sometimes a lot of them are out of focus, you were blinking, or you don’t like the pose/photo itself. Be prepared to sort through a lot of images to find the keepers!

3 — use manual focus

I like to avoid auto focus during self portraits. I find auto-focus can adjust at the wrong times. Instead, use manual focus to focus on the ground, foliage, or furniture on the same plane as you’ll be standing.

4 — movement is your friend

Movement in 2 ways:

Moving for the photos
My personal photography style includes a lot of movement and emotion, and I like to bring that in to my self portrait sessions. Be sure to adjust yourself (even slightly) each time you hear the click of the shutter, giving you variety and movement throughout each series of photos taken. This way you don’t end up with multiples of the exact same photo.
Moving for the focus
If you’re not 100% confident in focusing, try moving a few inches towards and away from the camera between shutter clicks in order to get a range of focus throughout each series of photos taken. That way you’ll likely get at least 1 or 2 that are perfectly in focus!

5 — wear something you feel your best in

Most of the time, portrait sessions are a great way to sharpen your skills and a great way to feel good about yourself. I love going out and spending time alone while simultaneously gushing over myself. Don’t squeeze into something you think you should wear (especially if you’re new to self portraits). Just wear something you feel great in! Your photos will show it.

For my most recent self portraits, I wore one of my favourite thrifted vintage sweaters, my go-to jeans, and my trusty old wide brimmed hat — the farthest thing from fancy — and I love how mine turned out because they just scream me.