When I began to take photography seriously and really improve my photographic skills I spent a lot of time doing portrait photography.
I have been incredibly lucky as I have had 2 willing sisters who have let me practice on them countless times. I have photographed them both thousands of times which has helped me enormously and given me a huge confidence with portrait photography.
However, the one thing I really wanted to master was self-portraits. So I made a goal to be able to take self-portraits as confidently as I am with normal portraits when I am behind the camera.
I have had to learn:
- How to model – i.e. look attractive, have my eyes open etc.
- How to compose myself without standing behind the camera.
- How to stand in front of the camera while controlling the camera at the same time.
I am now able to take self-portraits a lot more effortlessly.
I can tweak my camera settings, stand in front of the camera and control the camera, the composition and my modelling all without help. I don’t use a stand-in model and I “take the photograph” using a wireless remote.
